Armored Seed
by deathwing17
Summary: During the events at Heliopolis a group of mercenary pilots join forces with the Archangel. FlayxKira, MuxMurrue, OCx? and maybe CagallixAthrun
1. Enter the Ravens

Armored Seed

Chapter 1

Enter the Ravens

Disclaimer: I own neither Armored Core or Gundam Seed.

A/N: this is a fusion of both Armored Core _and_ Gundam Seed.

Some characters may seem a little OOC but it is necessary for my fan fiction's plot development.

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><p>-Armored Core carrier Zeus of the Black Skulls Raven Unit en route to Orb space colony Heliopolis-<p>

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><p>Captain Nigel Hackett sighed, if there was one thing he hated about being the captain of a ship it was sitting around waiting for what felt like several damn hours for some permission to dock at a neutral port but at least this time it had only taken them a little over an hour and a half for them to get a "Parking space" as Lieutenant Adam Michaels would have called it. Not to mention some of the other members of his crew were getting antsy to get off the Zeus and have a decent shot at some R&amp;R after a long and rather tiring series of deniable ops missions for both Orb as well as ZAFT. After all those missions that they had been on, the ship and its crew had earned more than their fair share of downtime.<p>

Besides they had taken a small amount of damage earlier in the week when they went up against a rival Raven group's carrier. Several of their anti-air guns had also taken some damage during the fighting. At least most of the hull the hull hadn't been damaged save for some scratches to their paint job but that wasn't really a priority at the moment. They needed to effect repairs at a neutral port like Heliopolis and begin to recruit new crewmembers and pilots ASAP.

The captain of the Zeus was broken out of his thoughts One member of the bridge staff looked over at him and said "Captain Hackett the colony just sent us a message, they're saying that we'll have clearance to dock within a few minutes." Hackett gave an internal sigh of relief, it seemed that their patience was finally starting to pay off.

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><p>-Zeus, Mess Hall-<p>

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><p>The main squadron of the Black Skulls; Black Team was sitting down eating their breakfast. "Man the second I hit Heliopolis I'm going to hit the first bar I see and get so damn wasted," Ensign Drake Mabuto all but announced to his comrades. Drake Mabuto was a regular wild card among Black Team. Drake had grey eyes and long blond hair that was done into a ponytail that in simpler terms almost made the man look like a hippie. If there was only thing that Mabuto enjoyed more than combat it was drinking and going to strip clubs. While Drake was in combat he was somewhat of a berserker normally charging headlong into fights and he enjoyed every single moment of it.<p>

"Ugh the last time you got that drunk Drake _I_ was the one who had to pay for the damages done to that bar from the fight that _you_ started" groaned Commander Donavon Cross. Cross had a short military styled crew cut and had piercing blue eyes. Donavon was a no nonsense soldier and the leader of Black team. And although he was more of a direct to the point kind of soldier he could be a somewhat charismatic leader at times.

To his left there was first petty officer Adam Michaels. Adam had green eyes and dark blue hair, Adam was the team's long range sniper support and while he wasn't a career Raven like Cross was he was still much more of professional in the field than Mabuto, although when he was off the field of battle he frequently joined Drake on his drinking escapades. "Oh come on sir I was just having a little bit of fun, and besides it's not like I knew that hot lady was that guy's wife." Adam silently laughed as he remembered that night. Although it wasn't Drake's finest moment, it was quite possibly the most entertaining to watch.

To Cross' right sat Li Wan Kai who was calmly eating her breakfast while reading one of her many romance novels that were in her possession. Kai had long black hair that was tied into a bun and emerald green eyes. Li wasn't what one would expect in a female soldier and had a number of bizarre hobbies that one normally wouldn't associate in a soldier let alone in a mercenary team. While Li was off duty she liked to shop for trashy romance novels that most people would normally just overlook as well as other items that.

She also enjoyed trying to pair up certain members of the crew who she thought would make good couples and despite the odds at times it normally worked rather well. Li had even attempted to do it to the youngest member of the team, Nathan Fletcher but after nearly two and a half months of little to no results she had all but given up on him. Nathan Fletcher was the only member of their team not sitting at the table with the rest of the unit. Instead he was sitting alone at a nearby table at the edge of the room.

Nathan Fletcher had almost blood red eyes and black hair. At first glance most would initially think that Fletcher was a Coordinator due to his unusual eye color. However the red eyes were actually a type of ocular implants after his old eyes had been rendered useless when he was in combat against a certain terrorist organization. Since ocular implants were getting to be commonplace now it was much easier to spot a person with that kind of an implant due to the red or yellow colored iris' that different manufacturers used.

Fletcher was arguably one the best pilots that they had on the team despite the fact that he was only seventeen years old and the rest of the unit was easily in their early twenties to mid thirties. In fact Nathan was one of the most famous Raven operators in existence because of his skills that were demonstrated when he was only thirteen years old. The most disturbing thing about Fletcher was that he was almost always had a cold air about him it was almost as though he had had detached himself from caring about anyone or anything. Due to Nathan's kill count along with his attitude on and off the field he had earned himself the moniker "The Red Eyed Devil" which suited the boy just fine.

Most of the crew knew about the reasons that he had acted the way he did but didn't speak about it due to their respect for Nathan's privacy, or they were afraid that he'd probably kill them in their sleep which they'd prefer to avoid.

A few moments later they were all given permission to disembark from the craft and most the crew immediately left the ship to get some much needed R&R.

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><p>-Heliopolis Park-<p>

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><p>After waiting around for what had felt like an eternity for permission to dock with the massive space colony almost all of the crew members that were off duty had left the ship for their shore leave like they had been promised by the captain. Michaels and Mabuto headed out to the local bars since the strip clubs weren't open until later in the evening. Li would simply head for the local bookstore and began to acquire more of her romance novels before she headed out for the clothing departments. Most people found that kind of activity to be strange in a soldier but they didn't seem to notice or really care after all everyone on the Zeus had their own set of personality quirks and rather than judge each other for each and every quirk they simply accepted it.<p>

Cross however would normally just stay onboard the Zeus simply because he was a workaholic. Nathan however enjoyed someplace that was booth quiet and peaceful when he went on shore leave. In fact whenever the unit got shore leave on the colony known as Heliopolis he headed for a park that was located nearby a local Tech School that was practically on the school's premises. He managed to ignore the large group of students that were socializing away and the Raven operator sat down on a nearby bench, closed his crimson colored eyes and allowed his head to roll back and relax.

Nathan was seconds away from dozing off he heard someone loudly yell out "Hey Kira!" Nathan's eyes popped open and he looked around to find the source of the speaker and saw a couple of students running towards their friend who was sitting nearby looking at his laptop while he watched some news reports about the war that had been going on for the last year and a half.

"So this is where you've been Kira, professor Kato's been trying to get a hold of you for a couple of hours now" a female student stated before the student called "Kira" looked up at his friends.

"Again?" he said giving a sigh of exasperation. It would seem that this "Professor Kato" really had need of Kira lately judging by the boy's reaction to the statement from the girl. Nathan continued to watch the exchange and it appeared as thought that this "Kira" was in high demand as of late.

"He asked us to bring you to him right away" said one of them while Kira groaned "But I still haven't finished going through the stuff he dumped on me the other day." One of his friends walked over and had a look at what it was he had been watching before they arrived "If this is footage is from last week they may've already taken Kaohsiung" said Kira's friend.

It really wasn't any of his business but the Chief Medical Officer Carmen Leone had repeatedly told him to try and socialize with people his own age and when he simply refused to comply with that order she had managed to convince Commander Cross to give Nathan a direct order knowing that would probably be the only way for him to do as he was told in such a regard.

"They have already taken it" said Nathan loudly enough that the other three students heard exactly what he had said.

Kira and his friends looked questioningly over at the strange boy who looked to be about a few months or even a year older than them continued "I just came from there" he said truthfully.

The boy had piercing red eyes and short pitch black hair "You did, what happened?" asked Mir "Let's just say that there were a lot of unnecessary deaths," said the boy as he looked up at the artificial sky.

"Well even if they've taken Kaohsiung ZAFT doesn't have any reason to come here I mean Orb is neutral right?" Tolle asked hopefully. The boy looked like he was about to say something else but a second later they heard a cell phone ringing "I'm sorry but could you please excuse me for a moment," said the boy as he took out the communications device and put it up to his ear.

"Yeah?" Nathan asked having already looked at the caller ID and he instantly knew who was calling him and he had a pretty good idea what it was those two wanted from him.

"Hey Nathan how you doing man? Eh listen I need to ask you a huge favor?" said the voice who he recognized as Adam. Nathan sighed irritably.

"If this is what I think it is just call Li for it." The young Raven pilot was sick and tired of having to go to the local bar or strip club that Drake and Adam normally went to and he ended up having to drag their drunken asses back to the Zeus so that the two idiots could sleep it off. The last time that this had happened the car he had taken to get them had its back seat area completely covered in vomit. Nathan nearly shuddered at that memory.

"It's nothing like that. This is actually about Li, she needs some help with her latest shopping spree and quite frankly I'd rather not subject myself or Drake to that kind of physical torture." Adam pleaded while he waited for Nathan's response.

'_So you'd rather subject me to that kind of torture,' _Nathan thought with a scowl. Whenever Li went shopping and dragged someone along it was tedious and annoying and since Drake and Adam had been repeatedly asking him favors to do things that were similar to this sort of situation he said the first thing that came to mind.

"It's not my problem Adam, have fun," Nathan said simply and he hung up on his squad mate while Adam began to shout out threats of pain and suffering towards Nathan. Nathan looked over to the students who were looking at him strangely "Sorry about that it was just a slight…disagreement between coworkers."

Thankfully that explanation had managed to satisfy everyone's curiosity. Nathan was about to leave to find someplace quiet to sit and think when he heard that girl's voice from earlier "Hey I don't think we got your name."

"The name's Fletcher," he stated not wanting to let a bunch of kids know who he really was. Although it wasn't common knowledge among most civilians, Nathan had built a name for himself among military circles, more specifically ZAFT and the Atlantic Federation and its allies as a near ruthless and unstoppable killing machine.

The girl stepped forwards and gestured to herself "Well my name's Miriallia but everyone calls me Mir, this is my boyfriend Tolle and this is our friend Kira" she said introducing everyone to the mercenary.

"Nice to meet you all," Nathan replied. Shortly after the introduced themselves Kira's friends invited him to tag along with them to the Morgenroete headquarters where Kira helped the professor from his school and since Nathan's choices were either hanging out with them or pulling Drake and Adam out of shopping duty with Li, he quickly and easily chose the former option. Besides he had been ordered to start socializing with people his own age and he never disobeyed a direct order especially when it came from Cross or Hackett.

The group eventually made there way to a bus stop where there were three teenage girls who seemed to be gossiping about some love letter. Unfortunately for Nathan they turned and saw their group walking in their direction. Nathan really didn't want to deal with what looked like three ditzy girls "Hey Miriallia I bet you know" one of the girls gushed "Know what?" the brown haired girl asked totally puzzled by the other girl's question.

The girl who had just spoken gestured towards the red haired girl that was standing next to her and said "Flay here got a letter from Sai Argyle and now she's claiming that there's nothing's going on" the girl explained. Kira seemed to pay much more attention after that last statement.

Looking at Kira, Nathan almost immediately could tell that the boy clearly had one hell of a crush on Flay it was so blatantly obvious to him but not so much to the others. The young soldier however supposed that no one noticed it because he had a rather uncanny knack for reading someone else's emotions.

One of the girls from Flay's group had finally managed to notice Nathan and walked straight up to him before she leaned in towards him and asked "Well hello there. Who're you?" she asked with a grin on her face almost suggestively making him very uncomfortable.

"His name is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher" said a voice that Nathan almost instantly recognized. He turned around and saw commander Donavon Cross along with the Zeus' chief medical officer Carmen Leone. Carmen was a dark skinned beauty with long light brown hair and blue eyes she was also something of a surrogate older sister to Nathan. Protocol immediately set in and Nathan gave his commanding officer a sharp salute "Commander sir."

"At ease kiddo the captain just sent for us to pick you up since you weren't answering your cell" said Cross. Nathan mentally smacked himself for making such a mistake.

"Sorry sir but I got a call from Michaels and Mabuto and I turned it off because I knew that they would just keep calling until I did as they asked sir," he apologized and the Raven commander just chuckled at that. Those two almost always asked Nathan for some kind of a favor whenever it was they went on shore leave.

"Not a problem now hurry up and get in soldier!" he ordered now with a serious look on his face. Fletcher immediately climbed into the car's backseat. The commander then all but floored on the gas pedal and they sped off leaving several teenagers wondering what the hell had just happened.

"So Fletcher's a soldier?" asked Flay looking over at Miriallia and her friends "He never told us anything about that," Mir assured her "But for who I mean they didn't look like they were wearing Earth Alliance uniforms" said Tolle "Maybe they were just off duty," Kira theorized. Eventually everyone just decided to drop the matter for the moment. A few minutes after that, Flay and her entourage left on one of the taxis that had just pulled in.

Once the three girls had driven away and out of earshot Tolle looked at his friend and elbowed him while he grinned confidently "Don't worry buddy you know as well as I do that arranged marriages almost never work out and then it'll be your best chance to go in and grab her."

Kira blushed a little at that last comment, it seemed as though that almost everybody in the colony knew about his crush on Flay Allster but to him she was just way out of his league but that didn't keep the young Coordinator from waiting and hoping that they could one day get into a relationship.

Kira thought about the red haired girl for a second or two before another cab parked nearby and the three friends entered it and set a course for the Morgenroete compound.

Upon entering the compound they saw that security had been tightened rather heavily since they were there last and Kira thought he caught a glimpse of tanks and other military vehicles over near a few of the classified hangers that Morgenroete had been keeping a very tight lock and key on. Kira just supposed that it wasn't that important after all he had seen some military vehicles around the complex before. The car pulled up by the front of the main building and let the students who were riding off of it.

"So are you going to ask him about that letter or am I?" Tolle remarked. Kira almost groaned, the entire way to the Morgenroete compound Tolle had been irritating the young Coordinator about that little rumor that they had gotten from two of Flay's friends "Will you just drop it?" he asked. Tolle then shrugged "Well if you're not going to ask him about it then I guess I'll have to," he said nonchalantly as he started to make his way towards Tolle.

Kira got a nervous look on his face and turned to face his friend "No you're not, now let's just focus on finishing this up for the professor" Kira suggested.

They quickly made their way to the testing area where Sai and Kuzzey were busy typing things into the computers that they were stationed and there was another person wearing a trench coat and a little hat that kept the person's face somewhat obscured. Tolle walked over to Kuzzey "Who's that?" he asked gesturing to the person who was standing by the entrance to the lab.

At first Kuzzey didn't know what he was talking about before he saw the girl that was leaning against the wall by the entrance "Oh that's the guest of the professor apparently she was told to wait here," Kuzzey explained not looking up from his work station and continued to type into the keyboard.

"Hey Kira you finally made it" said Sai before he handed him a disk "The professor asked me to give you this." Kira looked at disk for a few moments before looking back up at the spectacled teen.

"So what is it?" Kira asked "I'm going out on a limb here and saying that it's probably related to the work that Morgenroete's been doing lately"

Kira took another look at the disk again and as if he already knew what it contained he corrected his friend "Actually it's probably just some program analysis," he said before the whole building began to shake violently.

* * *

><p>-Zeus hangers-<p>

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><p>It only took Nathan and the rest of his squadron only a few minutes to reach the Zeus but by that time ZAFT had already made themselves known to most of the local population and had stolen several prototype mobile suits that were being developed the Earth Forces and had been killing anything and anyone that stood in their way. It only took Fletcher a few seconds to get his pilot uniform on and get for him to be ready for combat. The Raven operator ran towards the hanger pushing anyone who was in front of him out of the way. He rushed through the hanger doors and saw that his AC known as the Lucifer had just finished launch preparations and was just waiting for him.<p>

The Lucifer is an AC based primarily on medium to close range combat and is capable of using wrist mounted energy blades that have been upgraded to last for a near indefinite period of time instead of being simply used as a burst weapon. It also carried a high powered precision energy rifle on the left arm while in the right the machine carries a short range hand held sub machine gun that was shaped like an Uzi. Both shoulders also mounted mid range missile launchers.

As Nathan got into the AC a voice came over the radio "This is Lieutenant Scott Davidson call sign Sky Eye I'll be your support officer for this mission. Currently the enemy has acquired an unknown number of Earth prototype mobile suits but until the situation changes you are to assume that all MS outside are hostile and please do try to minimize civilian casualties remember we're the good guys here" Sky Eye ordered

"What about the rest of my team?" Nathan asked "Their orders are to assist in the space battle going on outside the Earth Alliance and the Orb security forces need all the support we can give em your current orders are to break off the attack that's currently going on inside the colony" he explained.

"Orders received Sky Eye, Black Five is moving out!" Nathan said as he flew out of the hanger of the Zeus and into the colony. It took only a few minutes for the Lucifer to get from the combat zone out in space and back into the colony and the moment that he had reentered the formerly peaceful place Nathan almost instantly spotted the enemy soldiers. There was a single GINN near the hanger opening fire on several retreating infantry and vehicles. The Lucifer raised its beam rifle and aimed.

"Die!" Nathan said over an open channel.

The GINN turned it's head just in time for it to see the Lucifer fire it's beam rifle. The concentrated energy from the weapon melted the steel joints that connected the machine's right arm to the rest of the mobile suit causing the whole arm to be blown clean off the shoulder that connected it to the torso of the mobile suit. The GINN was about to reach for its heavy sword with its one remaining arm but Nathan quickly closed the relatively short distance using the thrusters built into the legs and back.

The Lucifer pointed its SMG at the GINN and opened fire with its sub machine gun at point blank range which easily pierced the GINN's head and torso shredding the pilot inside almost two or three seconds after Nathan had finished pulling the trigger. Once the volley of gunfire was finished the ZAFT GINN swayed back and fourth for a moment or two before it fell back in a smoldering heap of metal.

"This is Red Eyed Devil one target confirmed down!" said Nathan as he opened fire on the ZAFT infantry that were nearby. The high powered SMG began to shred the remaining invading ZAFT infantry to pieces all the while he heard several radio messages from the other pilots who had stolen the G weapons and their fellow pilots that had been using space based GINNs

"What the hell is an AC doing here?"

"Does it matter? Just shoot the bastard."

"He killed Shotter!"

"Wait a second I recognize that insignia it's the Black Skulls!"

Nathan turned the Lucifer around and saw that another mobile suit was nearby its dull grey armor had changed to red and flew off to join the other stolen prototypes "Coward" Nathan muttered while he saw an dusk colored GINN opening fire with its machine gun on the Lucifer making the pilot use the thrusters in an attempt to strafe the enemy target while a blue and white colored prototype G-weapon had just gotten out of the hanger.

Kira's day had just gone from bad to worse ever since the attack had started and now to make things even worse he had just found out that his childhood friend Athrun was working with ZAFT. At least he had managed to get that girl who was supposed to meet with the professor out into one of the few remaining shelters so he did something right at least.

Kira looked at one of the monitors that showed what was going on outside of the Gundam and saw an armored core with the emblem of a skull with a sword going through it fighting off a GINN so Kira decided that the pilot of the AC was probably a friend rather than an enemy.

The Strike charged at the GINN with the Armor Schneider combat knives. The knives penetrated the joints of the GINN's armor preventing the machine from moving around.

"Attention Atlantic Federation pilot get out of the way now!" ordered a voice that sounded disturbingly similar to that Fletcher fellow that Kira had met earlier but Kira did as he was told and quickly backed up away from the GINN before an energy blade erupted from the AC's wrist and it charged at the ZAFT mobile suit and the blade went straight through the armor and out the other side of it. The Lucifer then deactivated the energy blade and pulled back right before the GINN exploded.

"This is Black Five the enemy is retreating shall I pursue them?" the pilot of the AC asked. Kira deduced that the man was most likely talking with his commanding officers "Negative Black Five your new orders are to protect the inside of that colony at all costs until all civilians make it too the shelters."

"Orders understood I'm moving out" he said before heading back to where Kira's friends had begun to gather nearby.

The Armored Core went into a kneeling position while the Gundam did the same. The AC's chest hatch opened up and a man in a black colored pilot suit with the same emblem as the Armored core stepped out and headed down towards where Murrue was being treated by Kira and Mir for her gunshot wound. He walked up to her and knelt beside her "You okay ma'am?" he asked his helmet still obscuring his face.

"Yeah I'm fine it's just a scratch, hey aren't you with the Black Skulls?" she asked before the mysterious pilot took off the helmet he was wearing and Kira instantly recognized that face from earlier it was that guy Fletcher "Yes my name is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher of the Black Skulls Raven unit"

Most of Kira's friends were surprised, they had figured out that he was in the military but they didn't know that he was a pilot.

"Hey you're that guy we met earlier. Why you didn't tell us that you were a soldier" said Mir in complete shock that someone that they had just met only less than an hour before was part of a PMC.

"You didn't ask and no I'm not a soldier I'm just a Raven," he explained. before anyone could try and gather more information about Nathan the group heard a gunshot. They turned around immediately and saw smoke emanating from the barrel of Murrue's pistol. She had been aiming at the Gundam, more specifically the students who were inside looking at the cockpit.

"Get the hell away from that machine!" she ordered this time adjusting her aim so she wouldn't purposely miss if she had to fire again. Before Murrue Ramius could bark out another warning she felt cold steel on the back of her neck. She immediately that the Raven operator had a gun aimed at her head.

"Drop your weapon you have fifteen seconds to comply!" Nathan ordered sounding almost like a machine as he spoke while Kira and Mir looked at the two of them with shock evident on their faces they certainly weren't expecting this from Nathan despite the fact that they had just met him less than an hour and a half ago.

"That's a classified machine and a top secret-" Murrue started but Fletcher didn't seem to care for that age old excuse.

"Five, four, three..." Fletcher counted but before Nathan could get to one Murrue had slipped the safety on the pistol back on and lowered the weapon ground. Murrue felt the gun's barrel come off her neck

"Smart move" said Nathan said picking up the gun that Murrue had discarded and ejected the magazine which hit the ground with a slight clacking noise. He then pulled back on the slide ejecting the one remaining bullet left in the weapon. He then took the slide off the gun and removed the firing pin and what connected the gun to the slide mechanism.

"If I catch you pointing a gun at civilians again next time I'll just blow your damned head off instead of giving you a warning," he promised as he tossed Murrue's now useless weapon and the remaining pieces of it to the side. All the while Mir and Kira looked completely dumbfounded at what Nathan just did, sure they had only met him a couple of hours ago but it was still somewhat surprising for them that someone who was around their age would be capable of doing something like that. Murrue sighed.

"Okay then, could one of you kids please go and get the number five trailer out we need to attach the Strike package while their's still time?" she asked politely.

As the teenagers did as thy were told and while most of them worked Mir turned to Murrue and asked "Just out of curiosity what's a Raven?" Mir asked. Murrue looked a little surprised by that, she had assumed that someone her age knew about those who fought primarily for profit. "A Raven is someone who fights for whoever has the most money, word has it that Fletcher over there's probably one of the more famous Ravens in the business."

"One of the more famous?" Mir asked genuinely interested. She hadn't been expecting to meet someone that was famous when she and her family came to live at Heliopolis.

"Yep he's been piloting armored cores since he was about fourteen years old and just about everyone in both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance militaries call him the Red Eyed Devil because of his skill and determination in combat." Murrue explained.

"Why doesn't the Earth Alliance just use armored cores I mean they seem to be just as good as mobile suits?" Mir asked before Murrue just chuckled at the girl's question but reminded herself that Mir wasn't in the military

"Every individual armored core is unique and customized by the pilot plus the parts to build them are very expensive, you could build at least five GINNs for the price of just one AC. As a result Armored Cores normally end up in the hands of mercenary or Raven groups like the Black Skulls because of the amount of money that they end up making during times of war," she explained.

Nathan meanwhile had just put his helmet back on and got back into the AC's cockpit and noticed an explosion and saw a white CGUE fighting with a Moebius Zero class space fighter. The white CGUE seemed to have noticed the Strike and flew down to intercept it. The Strike activated its phase shift armor and was about to open fire on the GINN When everyone heard another explosion and this time out of the smoke and debris came a massive white and red warship that was easily the same size as the Zeus if not slightly larger "It's the Archangel" said Murrue.

'_Well this battle just got a whole lot more interesting' _thought Nathan as he looked at the massive warship that had just blown its way out of the interior of the colony.

To be continued

A/N: If you're wondering why it is that Natural's can pilot armored cores the answer is simple. The Skulls not only have an operating system to allow Naturals to pilot them but they almost always train in between battles to hone their reflexes to near perfection so that they're reaction times are almost the same as a Coordinator's anyways.


	2. The First Flight of the Archangel

Armored Seed

Chapter 2

First Flight of the Archangel

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><p>-Heliopolis-<p>

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><p>Nathan just looked at the warship that had blown its way out from inside the colony. Nathan ran back into his AC as quickly as he could and activated his communications unit and after waiting a second for it to come online he said "Uh Sky Eye I have an unidentified warship that just blew its way out of the interior of the colony it appears to be Earth Alliance it's currently chasing after a white painted CGUE" said Nathan as he watched the spectacle on the main monitors of the Lucifer.<p>

"I hear you Black Five your current orders are to assist the Earth Forces in any way possible"

"What about getting some reinforcements sir this is clearly a fragile situation and some helping hands would be nice right about now" Nathan said as he watched the unidentified ship open fire on the CGUE "I'm sorry but all our forces are currently engaged now besides I think that the Red Eyed Devil can handle just one little mobile suit," the AWACS jibed almost playfully.

"Understood Sky Eye, Black Five out," said Nathan not bothering to pay much attention to Sky Eye's remarks before he began to fly after the CGUE while opening fire with the shoulder mounted missile launchers. The White CGUE turned and opened fire on the approaching missiles and managed to shoot them all down before they hit their intended target.

* * *

><p>-a few moments earlier-<p>

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><p>'<em>What's an armored core doing here?' <em>Commander Rau Le Creuset wondered to himself before he got a closer look at the emblem that was painted onto it's chest plate _'Of course the Black Skulls they almost always do work for Orb.'_ Rau then remembered some of his previous meetings and confrontations with that notorious mercenary group. When the masked man had entered the colony he wasn't expecting an armored Core much less one that belonged to the Raven unit, the Black Skulls but he could easily adjust his tactics for this unexpected turn of events.

Rau turned his CGUE and opened fire on the AC with his machine gun but the armored core managed to dodge the machine gun bursts by using a quick yet powerful burst of thrust from the back and leg mounted thruster modules _'He's good,'_ he thought complementing the pilot's ability. The enemy pilot then proceeded to counterattack him with his armored core's hand held SMG, milliseconds before the SMG opened fire however Le Creuset quickly raised his CGUE's shield which took most of the beating from the weapon.

Eventually the SMG's muzzle became red hot and smoke had begun to emanate from certain areas of the weapon, putting it simply the weapon was starting to overheat. Eventually the SMG stopped firing completely because the heat rendered the firing mechanism inoperable until it cooled down.

Le Creuset took this as his chance to return fire and did so, he aimed his machine gun at the armored core before opening fire at the AC. Rau Le Creuset's aim was true and his shots were completely on target with the enemy unit, each of the shots hit but they only did a small amount of damage to the armored core's slightly thicker and more durable armor. Since armored cores weren't normally mass produced and were each customized they had much better protection than most of ZAFT's mass produced GINNs and CGUEs.

Unfortunately this move had left commander Le Creuset almost completely open to an attack by the Moebius Zero from earlier. The gun pods that were normally mounted it broke off and began to open fire but the masked man anticipated this and used his CGUE's slightly damaged shield to take the fire from the pods

While Le Creuset was engaging the Lucifer and the Moebius Zero in combat Kira had the Strike unholstered its Agni beam cannon and aimed it directly at the ZAFT commander's CGUE. Lieutenant Murrue Ramius quickly noticed what he was about to try and do with that kind of hardware but before she could try and warn Kira not to use the cannon he had already opened fire. The weapon fired and not only did it miss Rau's mobile suit but it also blew an enormous hole clean through the other side of the colony that was several miles away and the air that was still inside in the giant cylinder shaped colony began to pour out into space.

'_I can't believe the Atlantic Federation has access to that kind of weaponry,' _Rau thought taking a quick glance at the destruction that that oversized cannon had caused to the colony. However he was thankful that at least the Strike's pilot managed to completely miss his CGUE and at the same time was kind enough to provide commander Le Creuset with an escape route.

'_Well Hawk of Endymion it looks as though we won't be finishing this here and now like I had hoped.' _Rau thought bitterly as his CGUE quickly flew out of the massive hole in the colony and began to head back to his command ship rather disappointed that he wasn't able to eliminate the Strike.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger flight deck-<p>

* * *

><p>"Lieutenant Ramius it's a relief to see you still alive ma'am," said a woman clad in an ensign's uniform who was followed by several other people wearing similar uniforms "Likewise ensign Natarle Badgiruel," while Kira exited the Strike. Fletcher also exited his AC.<p>

One of the crewmen looked shocked that two people so young was piloting both an AC and a Gundam "I don't believe it, a couple damned kids are piloting those things?" asked chief engineer Murdoch.

Fletcher ignored the chief engineer's comment gave a respectful salute towards the XO of the ship "Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher of the Black Skulls requesting permission to come aboard," he said while Natarle looked on in disbelief.

"Lieutenant Ramius what's going on here?" she asked still gawking at the mercenary pilot in front of her who was continuing to give a respectful salute.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting this," said a man wearing an alliance flight suit as he walked onto the flight deck "Lieutenant Mu La Flaga fourth fleet who'd have thought that I'd be meeting the famous Red Eyed Devil today." Upon hearing that little remark, several members of the crew started whispering amongst themselves while Kira and most of his friends looked on in confusion.

"I'm lieutenant Murrue Ramius of the Archangel," she said saluting the ace mobile armor pilot while Natarle did the same as well "Ensign Natarle Badgiruel of the same ship."

"Can I ask who's in charge around here?" asked Mu "I guess since all of the other commanding officers were killed in the attack that would be lieutenant Ramius" said Natarle much to Murrue's shock.

"There's only about a couple dozen or so of us left sir mostly just a bunch of non commissioned officers."

Murrue's eyes widened "That can't be." she muttered not knowing what else to say _'What a disaster,' _thought La Flaga dejectedly before he looked over at the boy that had been piloting the Strike "And who's the kid?" he asked "He's a civilian who happened to be in the engineering district when the attack started he managed to pilot the Gundam and fought of a GINN along with lieutenant Fletcher here," explained Murrue "They fought off a GINN?" asked Natarle surprised, "What happened to the other test pilots for the Gundams?" asked Mu while he felt that he somehow already knew the answer to that question.

"They were also killed in the attack," explained Natarle "I see." Mu then approached Kira "So tell me, you're a Coordinator am I right?" he asked while Kira's friends looked in surprise at him "Well…yes" he said while several guards got their weapons ready.

Nathan sighed almost angrily and got in front of Kira and his friends, this was becoming ridiculous "Is it standard Atlantic Federation military procedure to point weapons at unarmed civilians?" he asked irritably "W-well he's a Coordinator," said one of the crewmen not lowering his weapon or firing it at Kira.

"Yes he is but I'm a Raven operator who's been in over a hundred battles and he's just a civilian who was in a neutral area so he could avoid the war. So don't you think you should be pointing those weapons at the more dangerous of the two of us?" he asked.

The guards still didn't move or lower their weapons. Tolle had had enough he walked in front of Kira and held out his arms in a shielding position. "Hey just because Kira's a Coordinator doesn't make him the enemy, so why don't you save those bullets for someone else!" he exclaimed.

Even as Tolle was defending Kira. The same boy looked at the man known as Nathan, totally stunned. Kira wasn't expecting a near total stranger to do something like that especially since he was a Coordinator.

"This is Sky Eye to Black Five what is your status over?" a voice came over Nathan's headset. Nathan pushed a button on the communications device and said "This is Black Five we're currently in an Alliance warship and we will be headed to your position as soon as we possibly can to provide support but it's going to take some time getting there"

* * *

><p>-Commander Rau Le Creuset's command ship-<p>

* * *

><p>"It appears that we may have a slight problem" said Le Creuset calmly to the members of his team that were in front of him "One of the Atlantic Federation's new machines wasn't destroyed or captured like we originally intended. Instead it has received a pilot as well as support from a Raven unit that I'm sure that you have all heard of; the Black Skulls"<p>

Nichol got a confused look on his face, he didn't think that he had heard of them before "I don't believe that I've heard of them sir, who are they?" Le Creuset raised an eyebrow, though no one could see it because of his mask. The masked commander was somewhat surprised that Nichol hadn't heard of them but then again he was new to the military so it could be excused.

"They're a Raven group that mainly does work for Orb and on occasion ZAFT. They've done a rather large number of high risk missions and have a success rate of near one hundred percent and they almost always come out of the battle with little to no casualties," Le Creuset explained to his subordinates before he continued on.

"After all their primary ace the Red Eyed Devil had personally hunted down and completely butchered the Blue cosmos Cell that had helped cause the Bloody Valentines tragedy. And things have gotten a little worse. One of the prototypes has remained in the Atlantic Federation's hands and is maneuvering quite well despite the fact a Natural is piloting it. In order to contain this new threat I'm ordering that class-D equipment to be used"

'_I'm not so sure that it's a natural that's piloting that Gundam commander,' _Athrun thought to himself but not voicing his thoughts while he wondered if the new pilot was his old childhood friend but he shook the away the thought. Kira hated war more than anything plain and simple, and he sure as hell wouldn't work for the people who had started this one anyway. Athrun was broken out of his thoughts by Nichol who had spoken up.

"But sir if we use D-Class equipment we run the risk of destroying the whole colony," Nichol protested. Rau put a hand on Nichol's shoulder and spoke in a consoling tone "I know how you feel but whatever it takes to win this war and right now that means destroying the Strike and the new warship whatever the cost may be."

* * *

><p>-Archangel Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira was lying down on one of the beds that they had been provided asleep "How the hell can he be sleeping at a time like this?" asked Kuzzey "The first time someone's in combat can be extremely exhausting especially for someone as young as him" said Fletcher with the same emotionless tone he had since the group had met him. Mir turned and looked at the Raven operator and asked "Why didn't you tell us?" she asked.<p>

"Tell you what?" Nathan asked perplexed as to what she was referring to "That you were a mercenary!" Mir demanded.

Nathan's eyes narrowed he never really like that term that a lot of people had given Raven units he'd "The proper term is Raven not mercenary and as for your question, you never asked," he said right before he decided to drop another bombshell on them.

"And since I know at least on of you are about to ask, no I'm not a coordinator like Kira I've just been training almost nonstop for the past several years honing my skills and reflexes to rival that of a coordinator, all Ravens are required to do that in order to pilot an Armored Core."

Mir was about to continue questioning Nathan about what it was someone like him was doing at a neutral colony but before she could door opened and lieutenant Murrue Ramius walked in this time in an officer's uniform rather than a maintenance jumpsuit "I'm afraid that you and your friends can't leave this ship and we need you to pilot the Strike again," she said bluntly informing them of the situation.

"Why can't you just take us to the shelters?" Tolle demanded wanting to just get out of the thing that ZAFT clearly wanted to blow to kingdom come.

"All of the shelters are locked down there's no way hell we'd be able to enter them," explained Sai, it seemed as though they were trapped on the warship whether they liked it or not. However some individuals in the room still didn't want to get involved in something that they wanted no part of.

"I'm not going back in that thing this isn't my war!" Kira stated defiantly, he had already taken part in fighting a battle he didn't want to even take part in but now they wanted him to fight even more?

"God damn it, Kira it became your war the moment you stepped into that mobile suit!" said Nathan almost angrily.

"But what about Lieutenant La Flaga why can't he pilot it? Besides you have an armored core that's just as good."

"I may have an armored core and some superior training but they have numbers plus four of the five stolen prototypes from that hanger. Besides La Flaga can't operate the Strike since you changed its operating system no one but a Coordinator can pilot the damn thing now, if your not going to do this for the Earth Alliance then just do it for your friends, their lives are now in your hands now and if they die their blood will be on your hands do you really want that?"

The young Coordinator thought about if for about a second and a half and sighed "Okay I'll do it."

* * *

><p>-Zeus Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>"I want a constant Barrage of anti ship weapons off our port bow make sure that none of their MS get close to landing a hit!" captain Hackett ordered in his thick British accent "Sir what about our mobile armors?" asked the helmsman.<p>

"We've already have most of Black squadron out and until we get our mobile armors repaired from our last battle we can't send anyone or anything else out there" the Zeus then shook heavily for a moment or two which almost knocked Hackett off of his command chair.

"What the bloody hell just happened!" Hackett demanded hoping the damage wasn't as bad as he was thinking that it was "Sir our main cannon's heat absorption unit has been completely destroyed, we can't fire unless we want to risk the ship melting"

"Those damn bastards!" Hackett swore. The ship's main cannon also known as The Executioner as it was most commonly called among the crew which was had been based off of some of the capital ship weapons that were made by the Earth Forces. the weapon itself was of incredible power and was capable of destroying even the most thick and durable ships at long distances. Most military intelligence officers in the Earth Forces and ZAFT easily classified this weapon as D-Class or higher because of its power and long range effectiveness on the battlefield.

However there were several flaws in its design. The Executioner took time to charge and as it did it built up a lot of heat during that time and without the internal cooling units keeping it from literally cooking the ship's crew and other equipment it was practically useless.

* * *

><p>-Space surrounding Heliopolis-<p>

* * *

><p>Drake Mabuto was piloting his personal Armored Core, the Panzer, this specific armored core of the Black Skulls was a heavily armed and armored AC with shoulder mounted gatling cannons and a rocket launcher on each arm. The Panzer was designed to head directly into the enemy lines and forcibly break its way through and leave nothing but ash and molten slag in its wake.<p>

"Yeah mother fuckers! Come and get while it's hot!" Drake yelled pouring a near limitless amount of bullets into a nearby GINN the high powered ammo shredding through the GINN's armor and out the other side before it exploded.

"God I love this job!" Mabuto said while he changed targets to another nearby GINN but before he could pull down on the trigger a red beam went straight through the nearby GINN's cockpit "Ah bullshit man that asshole was mine," Drake whined

"You gotta be quicker than that Drake!" Adam declared, Adam's AC, the Centaur was built for long range combat, it carries a high output long range beam rifle along with two shoulder mounted long range hailstorm missile launchers. And like its name suggests the Centaur is a four legged AC which allowed it to have much better stabilization for long range attacks unfortunately this limited its usefulness in space which forced the Centaur to be used as more of a weapons platform rather than a combat unit and as such would only be sent out in the most dire or extreme of situations when in space.

Adam then spotted another ZAFT mobile suit, took aim with his long range rifle and squeezed the trigger sending another enemy soldier into the afterlife.

* * *

><p>-Rau Le Creuset's command ship-<p>

* * *

><p>Le Creuset sat in his command chair and was observing the battle when one of the bridge staff "Sir the Black Skull's warship has destroyed almost all of our support GINNs"<p>

"Pull the remaining units back they accomplished their task beautifully," he said while the staff officer looked at him confused "Sir what do you mean?" he asked not really understanding the strategy behind the commander's actions.

"They were only used as a distraction so that we could send in the strike team to destroy the Alliance's new ship," Rau explained while the bridge officer looked rather stunned at commander Le Creuset's ruthlessness but he shouldn't have been that surprised. This was commander Le Creuset after all the man was known for being rather unorthodox in his tactics at best and completely ruthless at worst.

* * *

><p>-Archangel hanger, Heliopolis interior-<p>

* * *

><p>It took some convincing but Kira agreed to pilot the Strike again while they made their way out of Heliopolis. Thankfully for the young coordinator the Strike was equipped with a sword package so that it would accidentally damage the colony "This is Sky Eye I've got reports of several ZAFT GINNs along with one of the stolen prototypes they appear to be using D-Class equipment I recommend that you attack at close range before they have a chance to open fire."<p>

Once Kira heard Sky Eye he looked horrified "They could destroy the entire colony with that kind of equipment," he muttered as he trembled in his seat with worry.

"That's because once their done with us Kira they're probably going to wipe out every living thing that's left on this colony" explained Nathan "But why would they-" Kira started but was cut off by the Raven pilot

"When you attack a neutral area you make sure that there's nobody left alive to tell anyone else what happened here, but don't let the possibilities of what could happen in combat distract you too much or the thought of failure will make you panic, and that can prove to be fatal. So just focus on keeping the Archangel covered and we'll just be fine," Nathan ordered cold hard focus evident in his voice.

The armored core walked up to the launching mechanism, "Nathan Fletcher in the Lucifer, launching," said the Raven pilot before his AC was catapulted out into colony and flew towards the approaching hostiles and was soon afterward followed by the Strike whose pilot felt as though his stomach was turning inside out as he was launched out of the ship.

"This should be fun" said one of the GINN pilots as he accelerated towards the Archangel ready to unleash a payload of anti-ship missiles only to get destroyed by a beam rifle discharge courtesy of the Lucifer.

"This is Black Five target confirmed down I'm engaging the GINNs."

"Understood Black Five good hunting."

The Lucifer flew up behind one of the GINN's that had just managed to get close to land a direct hit with its rocket launcher but milliseconds before the GINN's pilot could pull the trigger an energy blade emerged from the chest plate causing the shot to go wild and hit the interior of the colony. The Lucifer pulled out the blade and backed off before the GINN exploded.

"Sky Eye this is Nathan do you copy?" Nathan asked "I read you son what do you need?" Sky Eye asked.

"I need the Zeus to be ready to collect life boats. This whole damned colony's beginning to fall apart!" said Nathan "Understood I'll relay the message to the captain immediately," he said with a slightly worried tone to his voice.

Once the Strike had shown itself one of the GINNs flew towards it and opened fire with it's beam cannon "Die Natural scum!" the pilot yelled out pulling down on the trigger that activated it's main anti ship weapon. Kira dodged the attack but unfortunately it one of the colony's main support struts blasting a big enough hole in it that it caused it to collapse. Kira retaliated by using the blade that came with the sword package on the GINN slicing it in half destroying it utterly.

"Damn it they got Banks" Athrun cursed before he flew the Aegis towards the Strike. "Kira I know that it's you in there!" he yelled. Although to be honest Athrun only suspected that it was Kira after all it could have been possible that the Atlantic Federation had already created an OS for Naturals but that was very unlikely.

"Athrun what do you think you're doing?" Kira demanded "You're one to talk why the hell are you fighting with the Earth Forces?" he demanded.

Before Kira could reply however the last Colony support strut exploded from ZAFT weapons fire before it collapsed this caused a chain reaction that made the entire colony break apart. This sent numerous debris that were once part of Heliopolis into space. Athrun easily managed dodge the more dangerous of the debris but the sheer number of flying pieces of metal eventually forced him to retreat back to commander Le Creuset's command ship.

Kira however in complete shock that the place that he had come to call his home for several years was now completely destroyed, was not able to activate his thrusting units and was thrown out into the vacuum of space all the while he continued to watch his retreating friend finding it difficult to believe that they were now on opposing sides in a war that Kira never wanted any part of.

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p> 


	3. A Reunion of Old Friends

Armored Seed

Chapter 3

Rescues and Reunions

A/N: in this chapter you may see that the Skulls don't seem to act like most mercenaries would in this situation but let me be very clear the Black Skulls maybe mercenaries/Ravens but they're one of the more honorable groups because they don't kill civilians or leave any of their soldiers behind and will on rare occasion due certain types of missions for a lowered price. And although they normally try not to work for murderers and criminals (Most of the Atlantic Federation) they will buy weapons from arms dealers and supplies from crime lords and other disreputable characters.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>The bridge of the Archangel stared at the main display monitor of the destroyed space colony with near complete horror evident on their facial features "They destroyed it, it was so frail" Mu muttered to himself. It had been almost twenty or thirty minutes since the colony shattered into pieces. Shortly after this had occurred the Zeus had begun search and rescue operations for the lifeboats that hadn't escaped the colony's debris field.<p>

"Rescue team seven reporting, I got at least another two life boats here we could use some help dragging these back to the Archangel."

"Affirmative team seven I'll contact rescue teams four and five they should be in your vicinity," said Sky Eye over a secure comm. channel before he called up another team

"Team two what about that beacon we picked up in sector twelve?"

"We managed to get to the beacon emanating from one of the lifeboats, it's hull had been breached in multiple areas and the poor bastards weren't able to get their suits on in time so we just tagged them for burial."

"Sorry to hear that team two, but for now head for sector three there should a few more lifeboats that didn't make it out of the wreckage."

Ensign Natarle ignored the communications from the Zeus' rescue teams and continued to try and reach the Strike "This is ensign Natarle Badgiruel to Strike please respond," while Natarle continued to try and reach the Strike, Mu leaned back against a nearby guardrail and looked over at lieutenant Ramius who was now the acting captain of the ship "So what do we do now?" he asked.

"Well we're still in a combat situation and those ZAFT ships are still out there" she sighed. The Archangel was a strong ship according to the schematics but it wasn't built to fight off multiple enemy ships at once at least not without a lot of additional support ships.

Also it wasn't just the ZAFT Nazcas that were out there but it was also the compliment of mobile suits that they carried with them into battle. Although the Archangel and its allies had managed to take out all of the ZAFT GINNs they still had the stolen prototype mobile weapons which were each more than capable of taking down the Archangel and its escort. Although some comfort came in the fact that they still had the Strike along with the Moebius Zero and the armored cores from the Zeus.

"Radar and thermal detection units are of little use in this debris field because of the amount of interference that's being caused by what's left of the colony so they won't be able to detect us until we move out of the field so we should at least be safe for now." said Mu.

That left the ZAFT forces with only one method to detect them for the next couple of hours, visual inspection of each and every square inch of the ruins of Heliopolis which could easily take months but the debris would have cooled down long before then and ZAFT would no exactly where they were due to the heat emissions that were given off.

* * *

><p>-space around Heliopolis-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira looked at the destroyed colony in complete shock "It's gone, why?" he muttered to himself in shock, he seemed to be unable to accept what was right in front of him. The place that had been his home for several years was completely destroyed. Although the majority of the life boats which contained the people who lived there had been jettisoned it didn't help to change the fact that the place he had called his home had been completely destroyed. To make matters worse he also knew that one of the people who were partially responsible for the destruction of Heliopolis was one of his oldest friends.<p>

"Strike please respond" said a voice over the radio, Kira snapped out of his stupor and responded not knowing how long the ensign's voice had been going on over the radio "This is Kira what's going on?" he asked with a questioning look on his face.

"Strike you are ordered by acting captain Ramius to return to the Archangel immediately." Natarle ordered in a tone that suggested that arguing would be an unwise move. "Oh, uh alright," he said as he flew the Strike back towards the ship. On his way he noticed a lifeboat in the debris field its propulsion system was completely destoryed from debris that had been sent out into space from what was left of the colony. It was a miracle that none of the debris breached the life boat's frail hull.

Kira then approached the stranded life boat and grabbed it with the Strike's massive hands band began to carefully take it back to the Archangel. As he approached the ship he activated the Strike's communication's system to let the ship know that they were going to have more refugees on board the ship soon "This is Kira Yamato I'm bringing a lifeboat onto the Archangel."

"What? I'm sorry but you can't bring anymore civilians onto this ship it's a classified military weapon!" said Natarle "But their propulsion system is out and don't have enough air for me to drag them to the other ship plus we've been taking in refugees so why's this any different?" Kira demanded to the ship's acting XO. Didn't she care that the civilians on board would be dead in the next half hour, maybe even less.

"I'm sorry but-" Natarle started "I'll allow it," acting Captain Murrue cut in "Ma'am are you sure about this?" she asked not liking the acting captain's decision to bring even more civilians onto a top secret military warship "Yes I'm giving permission for Kira to bring in the lifeboat."

"Very well captain," said Natarle before she reluctantly relayed the captain's answer to the Strike's temporary pilot.

"Now on to more pressing concerns. Given that ZAFT is more than willing to destroy an entire colony in order to destroy this ship and the Strike I'd say it's more than likely that they'll probably continue to hunt us down" said Murrue before turning to the sensors operator "Is there anyway that we can find out where they're hiding?" she asked to which the officer just sighed and gave a shake of his head.

"No there's too much heat amongst the debris so the thermal detection units we have are pretty much worthless," Murrue practically scowled. Not only were they shorthanded on the ship despite help from the Zeus and it's Raven team that was now onboard the Archangel they were still most likely being pursued by an unknown number of ZAFT forces that had gotten their hands on four of the five prototype G-Weapons but they couldn't even detect the bastards in the debris field.

At least ZAFT would have the same sensor problem that they did and it would take them several weeks for them to search through all of that debris but the heat from the destruction of the colony would have finished cooling down long before then and from there it would be child's play to detect them via thermal detectors.

"Well we could just as easily outrun them," said Mu "After all this is a speedy ship or so I've been led to believe from what the ship design documents have said on the matter," he quipped while leaning against a railing that was on part of the bridge.

"You do realize that the main enemy force is composed of Nazca class vessels which are fast attack ships it'll be a living hell trying to outrun those," said Murrue as she massaged her temples trying to think up a way that they could sneak by the ZAFT ship.

Mu gave a slight grin "Well we could always surrender," he quipped before one of the crewmembers from the Zeus a tall Hispanic man with neck length spiky red hair who had been called Raphael by the other members of the Black Skulls.

Raphael had been on the bridge for a while and was to be acting as the liaison officer until the Zeus and the Archangel eventually parted ways but as it stood the Zeus was in no better condition for combat than the Archangel was. It was somewhat understaffed at the moment and its food and water rations were limited at best, that was the primary reason that they had stopped at Heliopolis in the first place, to resupply and to try and hire new crewmembers for their ship.

The red haired man hadn't really been paying much attention to their conversation much until Mu had made a joke about surrendering. Prior to joining the Zeus Raphael had been part of a resistance movement against Eurasia for a many number of years. The rebels that he fought alongside with would rather go down fighting than surrender to any enemy.

Raphael had emulated this tactic for most of his military career and had an intense dislike for the Eurasian military, he like most of the rebels he had fought alongside were far too proud to be taken prisoner by anyone be it Atlantic Federation, ZAFT and especially the Eurasian military. "Surrender is a coward's tactic," he said, very angry that any soldier worth his slat would even dare suggest something like that.

"All that I'm saying is that it's an option," said Mu shrugging off Raphael's comment trying to ignore the man's near menacing tone. "Well in the future I sincerely hope that you will provide less foolish options than such a weak willed tactic," he said before leaning back against the wall of the bridge and falling silent once again.

The slight confrontation between Raphael and Mu was quickly forgotten by the pilot and Natarle hoped that similar events wouldn't occur in the future but it seemed to be unlikely. The man did have some amount of respect for Murrue and for Mu La Flaga as well he simply didn't like the idea of surrendering to an enemy force.

The ensign was then broken out of her thoughts by acting captain Ramius "Right now we have to get to an allied base nearby and get resupplied before heading off to Luna Command," said Murrue. Natarle then checked the combat map to see if there were any nearby friendly ports in the area and found that the closest one to be the Eurasian outpost known as Artemis.

"It seems that the closest one to our current position would be Artemis ma'am," Natarle reported looking up from the combat map and looking straight at the captain.

"Yes but there's just one teensy little problem," said Mu emphasizing the word 'teensy' as much as he could. "We don't have any kind of Atlantic Federation or Eurasian military recognition codes they could just as easily shoot us down as they would help us" he explained.

"But Eurasia's an ally right so they'll probably be sympathetic to our cause...right?" asked another one of the bridge staff. That was unlikely, Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation hadn't been on the best of terms for the last several years and they only united because of their distaste for Coordinators.

Murrue pondered the options that they had, if they chose not to go to Artemis they would have to head to the next closest military base and that would be Luna but it would take several days and they only had a handful of supplies with them not to mention that ZAFT was still out there relentlessly trying to hunt them down.

"Alright then we'll launch a few decoy units before we set a course for Artemis to gather supplies and then we attempt to contact Luna headquarters the escape operation will commence in two hours" Murrue ordered.

"I'll relay your decision to my superiors acting captain," said Raphael who had been silently listening in to their conversation before moving towards the main communications booth. He still didn't understand why they were working with a bunch of Earth Forces ass wipes after all those people might as well be being run by the Blue Cosmos.

Raphael supposed that captain Hackett didn't have much choice after all ZAFT would be after them now since they had decided to defend Heliopolis and had almost ruined an operation under the command of Rau Le Creuset himself.

However if they managed to escort the Archangel back to EA controlled territory they'd make one hell of a profit and they would be proclaimed as heroes by Orb for helping them get the residents of Heliopolis to safety. That alone would easily increase their already high ratings on the Raven's Nest mercenary boards however an action like that would more than likely destroy any at all future business with ZAFT in the process but as captain Hackett had said back on the bridge of his ship.

"Any group that attacks a neutral area that is nearly incapable of fighting back just isn't worth our time." and although many on the bridge would argue that the Earth Forces had done the same thing but they just reminded themselves that they were defending the refugees which would give them a lot of good PR when this mess was over and besides those ZAFT ships would most likely be trying to hunt them all down now anyways due to their interference in their attempt to destroy the Atlantic Federation ship and its mobile suit cargo anyways.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius, bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Ades was sitting down in his command chair observing what was left of Heliopolis. The ships that Rau had brought with him easily escaped the destruction and showering debris that the colony left after being demolished by both the EA warship and the attacking ZAFT mobile suits. The captain turned his head to commander Le Creuset and scowled.<p>

"How in the hell could you destroy a neutral colony? I hope that you realize that the PLANTs supreme council won't just sweep an incident like this under the rug!" he all but yelled.

The masked man however remained completely calm and chuckled for a moment before responding with an irritating smirk.

"Allow me to ask you something captain Ades. How is it that a neutral colony which is constructing weapons for the Earth Forces be considered neutral?" the captain didn't respond but even he knew the answer to that, any country claiming to be neutral that was making weapons for an enemy nation couldn't possibly be considered neutral, or at least by military standards it wouldn't be.

"Besides it's not like this was another Bloody Valentines tragedy most of the residents had ample time and opportunity to flee the attack so its rather obvious that civilian casualties were kept down to a minimum" Rau then turned to the sensor operator.

"Have you managed to locate the enemy battleship?" he asked but the bridge staff officer let out a frustrated sigh as though he had been asked that by several people already.

"It's impossible under these current conditions sir" Rau shouldn't have been surprised, the heat given off from the colony's destruction along with the amount of debris it would be several days before the heat cooled off enough for them to get an accurate location of the Archangel but at the moment it was totally impossible.

The captain turned and looked at Creuset with a puzzled look "You still mean to pursue them, but we've lost all of our mobile suits" he said referring to the other GINNs that had been annihilated during the attack on the colony by either the new Earth Forces mobile suit unit or the Black Skulls.

The masked ace smirked "Why whatever do you mean captain? We still have the four machines we acquired from the colony don't we?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Well technically yes we do but the enemy is receiving help from the Black Skulls and they have at least a squadron of armored cores on their side"

"Most of those armored cores are simply primarily ground based they have only a handful that can actually manage to hold their own in a zero gravity environment" Rau said giving the captain a dose of his normally sound reasoning.

"I suppose your correct on that sir but there still is the Red Eyed Devil to consider and the enemy pilot who's currently using the one remaining Earth Weapon." Le Creuset of course just simply waved off the captain's concerns and warnings like he always did when he brought up a problem with his plans "I'd like to think that you'd have more faith that our pilots would be a match for a handful of Naturals and one little G-Weapon"

* * *

><p>-Archangel hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>As Kira got out of the Strike he saw that Nathan and another crewmember from the Zeus had opened the hatch on the Lifeboat and a certain red haired girl came out, he was about to go back to crew quarters when birdie, his robotic pet flew out of his jacket and towards Flay all the while it chirped "Birdie" every few seconds, Kira tried to catch it but lost his balance and flew down towards the lifeboat. Flay looked up and saw Kira flying towards him "Hey I remember you, you're Kira and you're one of Sai's friends right?" she asked as she embraced him happy that at least someone that she knew had managed to survive.<p>

"What happened to Heliopolis? I was with my friends and we got separated in a store but I managed to make it to one of the shelters, and this isn't a ZAFT ship is it?" she asked fearfully looking at the docked mobile suits in the hanger bay.

"No It's with the Earth forces" Kira explained to the girl who was very close to ending up in a panicked state of mind.

"But those are Mobile Suits and only Coordinators can use those" she said fear still evident in her voice "Trust me it's with the Atlantic Federation alright" said a voice coming from over to her left. Flay turned and saw the red eyed boy from earlier. He had just gotten out of the Lucifer and was floating nearby the war machine "Wait weren't you with Mir and her friends?" Flay asked remembering seeing him back on the colony with Mir and the others.

"Yeah, my name is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher and I'll be taking both you and Kira to the crew quarters." he explained calmly before he headed for the hanger's exit with the two civilians who had been dragged into the war following close behind him.

As they walked towards the crew quarters Flay got a little curious about the red eyed boy who was leading them "Hey Nathan why didn't you tell us you were with the Earth Forces?" she asked.

"I'm not with the Atlantic Federation or Eurasia" he explained with a slightly disgusted tone that she would even suggest that he was working for them before Flay gave him a confused look. Nathan noticed this and decided to elaborate further.

"I'm part of a private organization called the Black Skulls we normally do work for Orb and ZAFT mostly because of our distaste for how the Atlantic Federation deals with those who have different ideologies and ways of doing things but after this little incident I don't think we'll be doing any at all for ZAFT for a very long time" he explained. Flay listened to him but she got stuck on the fact that the Black Skulls actually took jobs from ZAFT, the same people who had just destroyed a neutral colony.

"You done work for ZAFT?" Flay asked mortified in that statement.

Nathan sighed irritably "Didn't you hear what I just said, we're a Raven unit that mainly does work for Orb and on some occasion ZAFT" the mercenary ace explained irritably. Nathan's explanation seemed to calm down Flay a little but not by much.

The three continued to walk the refugee filled halls of the Archangel each one either talking about what had just happened to their home or complaining about something that they didn't like about the living quality of the ship that had just managed to save their lives.

Once they had passed the other refugees they entered the area where Kira's friends were staying. Nathan pushed a button and the door slid open to reveal Kira and Flay's friends who were sitting down talking about what was going to happen to them. Once Flay had entered the room she immediately rushed to Argyle's side much to Kira's disappointment, the door slid open again and three soldiers which had Black Skull insignias on their uniforms walked in. one was a tall guy with messy dark blue hair.

Another was a man with long blond hair that was back into a ponytail and the third was a woman who's black hair was held up in a bun "Well, well, well I never thought our Red Devil would actually start socializing," said the blue haired man before he smirked at the blond who sighed unhappily before he pulled out his wallet before he handed him some cash.

"What are they doing?" Mir whispered before Li grinned "Those two idiots made a bet on whether or not Lieutenant Fletcher here would actually obey a certain order that the commander of our unit had given him" she then started laughing much to Kira and his friend's near confusion

"And what order might that be?" Kuzzey asked not understanding what was going on.

"Oh, just a direct order from the commander of the Black Five. Our Red Eyed Devil here actually had to be given a direct order to start socializing with other people" Li said almost laughing, Kira and his friends looked on in disbelief that Nathan had to be _ordered_ by a commanding officer just for him to socialize with other people.

True he didn't look like someone who would actively try getting to know other people but they didn't think that it would take a direct order by commanding officer for Nathan to actually start interacting with people that were his own age.

Nathan ignored them before he headed out of the room and began to walk towards the quarters that the acting captain of the Archangel had given him not wanting to deal with his squad's off duty antics.

Kira and his friends looked at the closed door that Nathan had just walked out of the room "Why the hell does he always seem to act like that?" asked Mir. Nathan's aloof attitude towards seemingly everyone was starting to irritate her a little.

The rest of Nathan's team put on nervous looks "We don't really like to talk about it," said Drake with an uncharacteristically hesitant tone to his normally upbeat voice.

"If you want to know you'll have to ask him but I wouldn't recommend it," said Li before door opened again and Mu La Flaga walked into the room. "Kid the Archangel and the Zeus are about to make a run for Artemis we're going to need you in the Strike shortly understood," the ace explained

Kira was mortified, he hated fighting. He stood up and looked at Mu angrily "I'm not going back into that thing I know I had to fly it a couple of times but that doesn't make me a soldier!" he exclaimed. Mu was about to say something when commander Cross walked up to the young Coordinator and grabbed him by his shirt's collar and lifted him up off the ground much to the shock of those in the cafeteria.

"Listen you little twit and listen good cause I'm only going to say this once. Only a handful of our Armored Cores are space worthy and Mu can't pilot the Strike since its OS had been changed by you, so that only being able to be used by Coordinators and since you're the only Coordinator on this ship you have to pilot the Strike because if you don't this ship could very well get destroyed along with your friends, do you want that kind of blood on your hands!" the Raven operator ranted.

Kira thought about the commander's words before he sighed there was absolutely no way for him to get out of this "Okay I'll stay on as the pilot for now."

Donavon lowered the kid back to the ground before he let go of Kira and backed off.

Flay however had been listening into the conversation but was stuck at the part that told her that Kira was a Coordinator "Y-you're a Coordinator?" she demanded, Li sighed and turned to the girl knowing how this was more than likely going to turn out "Yeah Kira's a Coordinator but he's not with ZAFT" Tolle explained but this didn't seem to calm the red haired girl down in the slightest.

"It doesn't matter! A Coordinator is a Coordinator now you just stay away from me!" she yelled before she stormed out of the room. Kira watched the girl walk away and he frowned, he'd had a crush on Flay Allster for quite some time but was too nervous to talk to her about anything and now he probably had lost any at all opportunity to get closer to her. Kira then felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up and saw Li giving him a sympathetic look.

"Listen Kira even people like us know who that girl is related to. She's the daughter of vice minister George Allster who as you might have heard is seriously anti-Coordinator and from what I've seen so far, the apple certainly hasn't fallen very far from the tree" upon seeing Kira frowning almost sadly, Li sighed and said "Tell you what, I'll go and see if I can talk some sense into her later" she promised.

Wanting to get back on track Mu quickly changed the subject back to something a little more relevant "Kid the Archangel is going to move out of the debris field and make a run for Artemis in less than fifteen minutes we've got to get you to the hanger" said Mu. Kira sighed again before he walked with Mu towards the hanger of the warship.

To be continued


	4. The Voyage to Artemis

Armored Seed

Chapter 4

Voyage to Artemis

* * *

><p>-Vesalius Rau's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset was sitting at his desk in his office quietly going over some of the battle reports with the Strike and the AC's that had fought for Heliopolis and was trying to see if he could find any weaknesses in their weapons or armor that he could exploit next battle but so far he hadn't come up with much. The door slid opened and Le Creuset turned his head to the door and saw on of his subordinates, Athrun Zala standing at attention "At ease," he said and after a moment of hesitation Athrun did as he was told.<p>

"Sir I would like to apologize for what had happened during the last battle-" Athrun started but Rau waved him off "I'm not going to punish you Athrun, but you froze up when you had the opportunity to destroy the Earth Forces new Mobile Suit I merely wish to know why that was," Rau explained as he patiently awaited his subordinate's answer.

Athrun sighed, there was no way he could possibly get around this "I think that the Strike is being piloted by an old friend of mine sir, Kira Yamato" he explained. If this news surprised Rau he didn't show it not that you could see most of his facial expressions because of his mask, but it made no difference it was part of the Earth Forces new weapons and it needed to be destroyed even if it had an old friend of one of his subordinates inside.

"Well I suppose that explains quite a bit," said Rau as he stroked his chin in thought "I hope you realize Athrun that if we do run in to this friend of yours again we could very well end up having to kill him," the masked commandewarned.

The blue haired boy's eyes widened, he hadn't really had time to consider that possibility as he was too caught up with the fact that Kira was working for the Earth Forces to even consider it but it made sense. Kira was now an enemy of ZAFT and they would have to end up fighting him eventually but he had to at least try to get him to defect.

"But sir he's just being used by the Naturals to pilot that thing and fight for them, just give me a chance and I'm positive that I can make him come around to our side," he said almost frantically.

His commanding officer arched an eyebrow in question despite the fact that it couldn't be seen due to his mask, "And if he doesn't?" Rau asked already knowing what his subordinate's answer was going to be. the masked commander was proven right even though Athrun had hesitated for a few seconds "Then I'll kill him myself," he said finally, his voice filled with conviction although it still held some doubt and uncertainty. Rau would have to keep an eye on the boy just to be on the safe side.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Raphael had reported back to his superiors and they agreed that making Artemis was the best course of action that they could make at the moment. He had also relayed information that the Zeus would be launching several additional decoys as well to make it a little more difficult for the ZAFT forces to track their movements. Raphael believed that at the Archangel's current strength alone it would be a twenty five percent likely hood that they would make it to Artemis but with the Zeus, despite its own problems and lack of space capable Armored Cores, their chances increased by at least thirty percent.<p>

"Launch decoys and then lay in a course for Artemis," Murrue ordered, the bridge crew did as they were told and launched about three decoys which was their near maximum number. The decoys themselves physically appeared to be missiles but they gave the exact same amount of thermal readings as Archangel itself did. This innovation forced enemy sensors to think that it was the ship that they were looking for.

Kira was making his way towards the hanger where Black team and La Flaga were waiting for him. As he went he saw his friends in Earth Forces volunteer uniforms "Uh, hey guys what exactly are you doing?" Kira asked reluctantly as if he didn't really want to know the answer to his own question.

"Well since you're piloting that Gundam the rest of us have to pull our own weight around here somehow right?" Tolle asked "I suppose so," said Kira watching his friends head for the bridge before he turned and headed back towards the hanger nervous about the battle that was sure to come.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Ades and commander Le Creuset watched as two large heat signatures began to make a break for the moon. Ades went over to the helmsmen of the ship and quickly ordered a pursuit of the two heat signatures thinking that they were the enemy ships. As the two heat signatures continued another two showed up on the map but they were headed in a completely different direction than the other two were going in. There was only thing in that direction was the Eurasian outpost Artemis.<p>

'_So they're heading for Artemis eh' _Le Creuset turned to face the captain his back facing the tactical map "Belay that order captain their decoys" Rau commanded with absolute conviction in his voice. The captain looked stunned how the hell could commander Le Creuset know something like that with absolute certainty.

"But sir wouldn't it be more likely that they would head for the lunar command base, that is one of their most heavily fortified bases and the central hub for all of the Atlantic Federation's space operations" Aides suggested calmly. Rau Le Creuset however just casually waved him off like he normally did.

"They're heading for Artemis after all it's much closer and it has the Umbrella Shield unit which as you well know is a nearly impenetrable defense. Once they dock at Artemis they will have more than enough time to resupply and then make a run for the Moon"

Ades sighed and gave the order to chase after the other two heat signatures hoping that the commander wasn't making a big mistake that would make them fail this already costly mission to eliminate the Earth Forces Legged ship and what remained of its mobile suit program.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Raphael looked from his position in the back at the kids in Earth Forces volunteer uniforms and wondered just what the hell they were doing on the bridge for. He then noticed that they were beginning to man various equipment such as sensors and communications while the original operators left the room to proceed to their other duties. The liaison officer looked and realized that they must have been the Strike pilot, Kira's friends from Heliopolis<p>

Raphael couldn't help but look in wonder at the teenagers who were now manning the controls. Ever since they had escaped the now destroyed colony the refugees that the Zeus had managed to recover from the ruins needed to be put in the Archangel because of the lack of living space for the refugees on the mercenary ship. The Archangel however had plenty of room due to the fact that it had less than a crewmembers onboard.

He looked at the volunteers with a slight smile on his normally calm and collected features he was pleasantly surprised by their behavior after all he had expected them to be complaining about their current conditions like the rest of the refugees were, not offering their assistance to their rescuers.

* * *

><p>-Space-<p>

* * *

><p>Once the Strike had launched Kira was ordered by the captain to patrol the stern area of Archangel while the enemy Nazca class battleship came steadily closer towards the Archangel. Since lieutenant La Flaga's Moebius Zero was still being refitted, a process which would take a good ten to fifteen minutes and the Black Skulls were currently undergoing prelaunch checks that was quicker but it was still going to take about another five minutes. Another thing that made Kira slightly worried was that the only things that Strike really had for weaponry were those Armor Schneider combat knives and a beam rifle neither of which would be of much use against a battleship.<p>

'Easier said than done' he thought to himself as he saw that the thermal detection unit was picking up the three stolen prototypes on an intercept course for the Archangel and the Zeus which began to open fire on the stolen mobile suits. A second and a half later he saw that the radar was detecting another heat signature.

Kira turned the strike to have a look and saw that it was the Aegis and it was heading straight for him while activating its arm mounted beam saber unit. Kira instinctively drew his own close range weapon and activated it but the Aegis just flew right by him. Kira turned the Strike and saw that the Aegis had already turned around as well but hadn't deactivated its weapon. It then began to charge directly at the Strike with its weapon at the ready.

"Kira what the hell are you doing lower your weapon, we're not enemies!" said Athrun before he continued "We're both Coordinators we're supposed to be fighting against the Earth Forces not for them!" the two attempted to strike the other with their beam sabers both attempting to disable but not destroy the opposing mobile suit but they always became locked before they pulled back and attempted to do the same again. This cycle continued for a few more seconds before Kira spoke.

"I'm not fighting for the Earth Forces I'm fighting to protect my friends and the refugees that are on board that ship!" Kira exclaimed "Besides what are you doing with ZAFT you told me that you hated the whole idea of this war so why would you attack a neutral colony?" he countered.

'_He's as naïve as ever'_ Athrun thought before responding to his old friend's question "They had already turned that colony into a target when they decided to build mobile suits for the Earth Forces!" he exclaimed. He didn't like having to do that mission but at least they kept civilian casualties down to a minimum unlike the Earth Forces who if the situation were reversed probably would have nuked the entire colony like they did to Junius Seven.

Kira couldn't believe what he had just heard, this definitely wasn't the same Athrun that he had known as a kid back on Copernicus "Heliopolis was neutral Athrun and so am I!" Kira exclaimed before the Strike's sensors detected a new mobile suit closing in fast, it was the Duel.

Once the battle with the Legged Ship had started Yzak had noticed that Athrun wasn't having any part of the battle and instead was "Fighting" with the new enemy mobile suit and now he wasn't even doing that he was just hovering there while the rest of his squadron were attacking an Earth Alliance warship.

"You're not fighting Athrun why the hell not!" Yzak demanded angrily as he fired his beam rifle over and over which uselessly impacted the Strike's shield which had been designed to withstand hits from beam weaponry.

Kira returned fire at the Duel with his own beam but the shots were either absorbed by the shield or they were evaded completely. As the three of them fought Kira began to notice that the power supply on the phase shift armor was steadily beginning to diminish, he had to finish this fight quickly or he'd more than likely get killed or even captured. Kira fired another series of shots from his beam rifle returning the Duel's fire as the two attempted to blow each other to pieces. Unfortunately another two Mobile Suits appeared, this time it was the Buster and Blitz

"Athrun our orders are to destroy this Mobile Suit on sight you're disobeying a direct order!" exclaimed Dearka angrily but he sounded a lot more calm than Yzak had been acting "Why should we destroy this prototype Dearka when we can capture it and gain an even bigger advantage over the Earth Forces? I think that commander Le Creuset would agree with me on this," Athrun stated.

Nichol was inclined to agree with Athrun on this one, besides the youngest member of the Le Creuset team never wanted to kill unless he had no other choice. "I have to agree with Athrun," the green haired boy said "It makes much more sense to capture a powerful weapon rather than destroy it" he said and the other two pilots of the Le Creuset team seemed to agree with the boy's reasoning.

Nathan along with the members of his squadron that had AC's capable of space combat had just launched a few moments earlier from the Archangel. The second that Nathan was clear of the hanger he heard their AWAC's voice over the communication channels "Sky Eye here I've just received confirmation, the mobile suits that are attacking are the stolen prototypes, currently their going after Kira so move your asses!" the AWACS warned.

"Thanks for the heads up Sky Eye, Black three take care of the buster, Black five you handle the duel and the Aegis. As for me I think I'll destroy the Blitz, now let's show these bastards how real men fight!" said Donovan over the communication channels the man sounded eager to test his unit's Armored cores against the stolen Earth Forces prototypes. The Armored Cores then flew in a diamond shaped formation towards where the Strike was so far vainly attempting to fight off the hostile MS.

The Strike's phase shift had just run out of power and so the Gundam's movements were becoming sluggish, the pilot of the Aegis quickly took the initiative of the opportunity presented to him and transformed the Gundam into its mobile armor mode which closely resembled a giant claw and easily entrapped the strike in its grip before it began to drag Kira back to the Gamow.

"Athrun what are you doing!" Kira demanded while he struggled with the Strike's controls trying to break free "I'm taking you back to the Gamow" said Athrun. Upon hearing that declaration Kira tired to struggle but his mobile suit was still stuck in the vice like grip of the Aegis.

"I'm not setting foot in a ZAFT ship let me go!" he yelled almost pleading "You'll cooperate with us or…or I'll be forced to shoot you down" he said somewhat reluctantly. Kira's eyes went wide, he couldn't believe what it was that he had just heard from him.

Before Kira could respond to what Athrun had almost coldly stated, the voice of a certain loudmouth came over the communications channels.

"Yeah, mother fuckers come and get it while it's hot!" Drake roared almost happily while firing the Panzer's shoulder mounted gatling cannons at the stolen prototypes, more specifically the Buster hitting it several times with high impact explosive slugs.

The cannons that the Panzer used were kinetic based and therefore wouldn't do much damage to phase shift armor however the resulting explosion from the ammunition would make a counterattack from the Buster extremely difficult.

After a few hits Dearka seemed to notice that he wouldn't be able to mount a counterstrike while he was being bombarded like that and so he opened a communications "Nichol I need support now!" Dearka ordered hoping that Nichol could hear him over the rumbling of his cockpit.

"On my way!" Nichol said reassuringly but he was then pounded in the shield by a series of beam rifle shots from the AC known as the White Knight.

"If you're going to run before the fight is joined than this little skirmish won't be much fun in the way of sport now will it?" Cross asked mocking the Blitz's pilot while the White Knight's shoulder mounted micro missile launchers opened fire at near point blank range easily hitting the Blitz. Although little damage would be done from the kinetic weapons however the bright explosions from the detonations temporarily blinded the pilot cams making the Blitz an easy target.

Cross easily seized the initiative and opened fire with his beam rifle. Each shot smacked right into the Blitz draining its phase shift armor's power by a significant margin. The Blitz drew raised its right arm and fired four lancer darts from the launching mechanism located under the shield.

Three of the lancer darts narrowly missed the machine but the fourth struck home on the left side of the White Knight blowing some of the armor off and exposing the machinery underneath 'Not bad for a kid' Cross thought to himself while he holstered the Knight's machine gun and activated its energy blade and struck at the Blitz.

Nichol instinctively brought his shield up and it took the full brunt of the blow and despite the shield's added protection against beam weapons if he continued to chew his way in with the energy blade he'd eventually cut straight through the shield and the arm. Nichol pulled back as fast as the Blitz's thrusters would allow him 'That was too close' he thought before the White Knight charged at him again forcing him to go back on the defensive.

Dearka meanwhile was still being pounded by the gatling cannons that the Panzer was using when they suddenly stopped. Dearka looked and saw that the gatling cannon's firing cylinders were red hot meaning that they had probably overheated and were thus rendered incapable of firing for a good twenty or thirty seconds. Dearka took this chance and opened fire with the Buster's shoulder mounted missile pods.

Drake's eyes widened as the dozens of small projectiles headed straight towards him, "Ah, fuck me," he said to himself while trying to evade the literal hail of missiles. Unfortunately the Panzer was designed to charge directly into the center of enemy formations and tear them apart so heavy weapons and armor were needed to make this strategy work properly. This resulted in the Panzer becoming incredibly slow even when the thrusters were being used but the trade off for this was that since the armor was built from several incredibly thick and durable materials made sure that the machine rarely received any severe damage.

When the missile salvo had finally finished exploding against the Panzer it had come out nearly unscathed much to Dearka's surprise 'What the hell is that thing made out of?' he wondered to himself.

Meanwhile Drake gave out a sigh of relief that the Panzer's armor managed to take the damage from most of the missiles before he'd had the Panzer's Gatling cannons fold back to their original places when they weren't activated so that he would be able to bring up two of his heavier weapons antimatter bazookas.

"Let's see how your fancy armor stands up to this," he taunted as he pulled back the trigger firing both of the bazookas at his intended target. The Buster which barely managed to dodge one of the two shots but not before taking a glancing blow on the shoulder armor. If it wasn't for the phase shift armor then the Buster would most likely have had its entire arm blown clean off from the shot. Dearka then resumed his attack on the Panzer.

Meanwhile the Lucifer flew straight towards the Aegis which was dragging the Strike towards the Vesalius, The Lucifer holstered its SMG and activated the arm mounted energy blade and struck the Aegis' claw form and managed to slice off one of the "talons" causing the Strike to shake loose "Kira I'll handle the Aegis for there's going to be a launcher package for you in a few moments it should recharge the phase shift unit!" said Nathan as he opened fire with his beam rifle hitting the Aegis enough for it to pull back.

Athrun however managed to intercept the last transmission but the Strike's Launcher pack had already been sent out. Kira managed to get the Gundam to move just enough so that it would attach easily to the Mobile Suit.

Once the pack had attached to the Strike the armor changed from dull grey to the color it appeared in when the phase shift armor had been activated. This allowed Kira increase the group's odds against the four stolen Gundams. "I'll leave the Aegis to you Kira" said Nathan before he flew after the Duel who had just begun firing at them.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset had just been informed that the Black Skulls had engaged the stolen G-Weapons and despite his initial assumptions about his men being easily able to defeat the Ravens he was proven to be somewhat mistaken. Despite the fact that they were Naturals they were proving to have piloting skills that were practically equal to his own team. The commander was brought out of his thoughts by one of the sensor operators saying<p>

"Sir we've got a hostile mobile armor unit coming from below us!" he said. The captain of the ship reacted almost immediately as though he had been expecting something like this to occur "Quickly open fire don't let that mobile armor get too close to our ship!" Ades ordered Rau had already known that it was probably too late. The masked commander was proven correct when a series of explosions rocked underside of the ship. Once the ship had stopped shaking Ades spoke up.

"Someone give me a damage report now!" he ordered. He didn't have to wait long as one of the bridge staff reported just a few seconds later "sir our engines have taken several direct hits and we cannot maintain speed, the Legged ship will outrun us in a few minutes" the bridge staff officer said a little nervously.

Rau Le Creuset sighed there was little point in continuing the attack especially since the stolen prototypes would have little to no support "Order our Mobile Suits to retreat" he ordered 'Damn you to hell Mu La Flaga' Rau thought bitterly.

Yzak was having his hands full dealing with the Lucifer which was putting up one hell of a fight "Why won't you just die!" the silver haired pilot demanded firing several shots from his beam rifle two of which impacted the Lucifer but caused very little damage to the AC's thick armor that was built to withstand beam weaponry.

Growling in frustration he was about to take out his beam saber and engage the Lucifer in close range combat but a message popped up on his screen **The Vesalius has suffered moderate damage to the engines withdraw immediately**. Needless to say this pissed Yzak off he wanted to wipe out the Black Skulls and personally destroy the Legged Ship "Everyone fall back the Vesalius has taken heavy damage" Athrun ordered. Of course Yzak had a problem with this

"What?" Yzak demanded "I say we keep fighting and wipe these Natural bastards out!" he roared angrily firing a series of shots from his beam rifle that the Lucifer dodged with relative ease making the hotheaded pilot even more angry than he was earlier.

"Yzak calm down we no longer have the support of the Vesalius and if this battle continues we'll be the ones running out of power and then we'll be the ones who'll be wiped out" Nichol explained to the hot headed Coordinator. The hotheaded pilot finally managed to listen to reason and began to thrust away from the enemy machines.

"Permission to pursue commander?" asked Nathan into his communications unit "No let em go Black Five we've won the battle besides only the engines of the Vesalius were damaged not the weapons you get too close and you'll be turned into scrap metal in a matter of seconds" Cross explained "Yes sir" said Nathan sounding somewhat disappointed that he wouldn't be able to finish the fight but at least they could rest easy for a while.

The Lucifer and the White Knight then grabbed the Strike by the shoulders and began to drag the enormous machine back to the Archangel. The trip began in silence but eventually Cross spoke up with a calm and even tone.

"Kira I tapped into your comms during the fight you seemed to know the guy who's piloting the Aegis and vice versa, would you mind telling me who that young man is?" the commander asked sternly. Kira sighed, there was no way that he could possibly hide it from the Ravens now.

"Athrun's an old friend of mine, we went to the same prep school when we were kids" he explained. Cross stroked his chin in thought for a moment before he raised an eyebrow at the name, he knew of that first name from the PLANTs but Cross had to be absolutely sure that it wasn't just some bizarre coincidence.

"I'm going to take a gamble and say that by Athrun you mean Athrun Zala correct?" he asked before Kira sighed depressingly again.

"Yeah that's his name" the young Coordinator said before continuing "But what I just don't understand is why he's acting like this I mean he always hated the idea of a war between the PLANT's and the Earth Forces" he said feeling depressed and this was even made worse by what Drake said

"Well maybe he wants payback. I mean it's a pretty petty reason for joining the military but he did lose his mom during the Bloody Valentines Massacre so maybe a few screws came a little loose in the brat's head like it did with his daddy," the mercenary theorized rather rudely and of course without thinking.

"Drake that's his friend you're talking about!" Cross snapped knowing that his comrade often spoke before thinking. Even though Drake could be a near complete asshole at times but even he knew right from wrong and when not to make comments like that "Oh, I-ah, shit I'm sorry kid I didn't mean anything by it I just-" Drake sputtered trying to apologize for his own big mouth.

Kira however knew that the Raven pilot didn't mean what it was he said but it still hurt "It's alright I guess I'm going to have to accept the fact that I'm fighting my friend," said Kira sadly. The rest of the trip back to the Archangel proceeded in complete silence for the group while they headed back to the Archangel.

To be continued

Next: Fall of the Greek Huntress


	5. The Fall of the Greek Huntress

Armored Seed

Chapter 5

Fall of the Huntress

-Archangel Crew Quarters-

It had been almost two hours and a half since the skirmish with the pursuing ZAFT ships and right now Li Wan Kai was standing right outside the quarters of one Flay Allster. Li sighed to herself knowing that this would be very difficult to say the least considering that kid had been brought up to hate Coordinators but she had promised Kira that she'd talk to the girl and that was just what she intended to do. The Raven pilot knocked on the door a few times before the door slid open and the Raven operator found herself face to face with the red haired girl.

"We need to talk little girl" she said with a tone that made a negative answer sound . Flay subconsciously gulped while she looked at the woman and knew that the Raven operator wouldn't take no for an answer so she allowed the mercenary pilot in. Li sat in the unoccupied bed across from the red haired girl. Before Flay could ask the mercenary what it was she wanted Li Wan Kai had already cut her off and spoke.

"I think that you're being incredibly stupid" Li said rather bluntly much to Flay's confusion. She didn't even know what the hell the pilot was even talking about "What?" she said almost sputtering at the Raven's statement not knowing how to respond to that.

Li however all but ignored her question and continued to talk "It's simple you hate and fear Coordinators despite never trying to get to know any of them, what you have is nothing but blind hatred that your dumbass of a father has been putting into you ever since you were a child" she said leaning back against the wall and crossing her arms.

Flay stood up and looked at Li with intense anger that someone would dare insult her father "My father is a good man!" she exclaimed angrily defending her only remaining family member that she had left "And besides adjusting your genetics, it's not what god intended for us!"

Li just gave an almost nonchalant shrug and responded "Who's to say what god intended you, your father or perhaps the Atlantic Federation who ordered the massacre of over three hundred thousand innocent people who did nothing to provoke such an action besides having been born the way they were?" Li asked while Flay looked flabbergasted at what the woman had just said to her.

"W-well I-" Flay stuttered incapable of coming up with a response to Li's cold logical reasoning "I ask you this because I'm beginning to wonder something, if given the chance would you have all Coordinator's be exterminated down to the last man woman and child?" Li explained to her.

The red haired girl began to look somewhat conflicted between the views that her father had brought her up with and the mercenary's cold hard logic which had told her that the group that her father was supporting obviously wanted the absolute genocide of every single Coordinator and even though she feared and hated Coordinators she also despised the very thought of exterminating millions just because you were born the way you were.

"Now I'm not telling you to just go and say that your Father is a genocidal lunatic because he supports the views of those maniacs. All that I'm saying is that you should at least try to understand those who you so blindly fear even though they have done almost nothing to garner such hatred" she said before she got up and was about to leave when she remembered something and turned around to face Flay again still having a serious expression on her face.

"Also I believe that I should give you a word of warning that you would do very well to heed, never openly voice any of your anti-Coordinator opinions around Nathan he gets rather…" Li trailed off trying to find the right words "Agitated, when he finds out about someone, anyone really who shares or supports the Blue Cosmos way of thinking" Li warned before she opened the door and left Flay to her conflicted thoughts.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>The moment that the Le Creuset team got out of the hanger Yzak wanted to beat some sense into Athrun himself. Of course he couldn't do it right in the hanger he'd be restrained before he could even throw a second punch. So the white haired teen waited until he, Dearka and Athrun had finally entered the crew quarters section of the Vesalius.<p>

The instant that the door had finished closing behind them Yzak quickly grabbed Athrun by his pilot suit and slammed him up against the wall with a furious expression on his face.

"What the fuck were you doing out there we almost had them!" he yelled angrily right in Athrun's face who was remaining calm. After they had to retreat Yzak instantly blamed Athrun for their mission's screw up. Athrun could tell that Yzak was trying to keep most of his anger in check and this was proven by the fact that Yzak hadn't started punching Athrun in the face just yet.

"But you had to screw everything up by disobeying orders" Dearka finished nonchalantly. He was also frustrated with Athrun's behavior during that mission he wasn't as impulsive as Yzak was and held himself back a bit however he did absolutely nothing to stop his impulsive and hot headed squad mate from doing something stupid. Yzak clenched one of his hands into a fist and was about to raise it intent on trying to beat some sense into Athrun when Nichol walked into the room and his eyes went wide at what he was seeing.

"What are you doing Yzak?" the youngest member of the Le Creuset team demanded "We went out with four machines and if it wasn't for this idiot botching everything up we would have wiped the floor with the Legged Ship and those damned Ravens!" Yzak said angrily not taking his eyes off Athrun for a moment.

Nichol couldn't believe what he was hearing, sure it was a risk to try and capture the Strike but still even if they had tried to destroy it those Raven's would have intervened and probably stopped them from doing that anyways.

"Even so this is hardly the time or the place for this!" Nichol exclaimed while he tried to be the voice of reason in the fight that was going on in front of him. "Fine" Yzak spat half a second before he slammed Athrun against the wall as hard as he could one last time before he and Dearka exited the room.

The moment that the two were gone Nichol approached his friend "Athrun this isn't like you, what's going on?" he asked hoping to help his friend.

Athrun sighed, he wanted to tell Nichol about his old friend that was now working for the Earth Forces but decided against it. It wasn't Nichol's problem at the moment and Athrun didn't want to burden him with his own problems.

"It's nothing I'd just rather be alone for right now" he said before he too exited the crew quarters leaving the youngest member of the Le Creuset team alone in the now quiet crew quarters section of the ship.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>The cockpit of the Lucifer opened up and Nathan took off his helmet from his piloting suit and began to head for the cafeteria to get some semi decent food in his stomach. As he floated downwards he saw Lieutenant La Flaga trying to help Kira out of the Strike, the kid looked sick to his stomach to say the least.<p>

Nathan almost immediately diagnosed the problem, the adrenaline had just worn off and the kid was now somewhat freaking out because of how close he came to dying out there. When the Raven operator got there he saw that Mu was helping the kid out of the pilot's seat and Kira looked as though he was going to vomit the food that he had been eating just a few hours earlier on the ship.

"W-will that happen every time we go out there?" he asked while Mu gave the kid a consoling smile "The first time is always the worst but you get used to the feeling of impending death coming at you" the ace explained.

The two of them then noticed Nathan floating nearby still with the same neutral expression on his face that he always had on.

"Believe it or not Kira, you actually have it much better than I did when after I came back after my first mission" said Nathan but the Raven didn't elaborate further and Kira was thankful for it he didn't want feel any more sick to his stomach than he already was. However he had to wonder what kind of mission it was to make someone that was as cold as Nathan was feel even more sick than how Kira was feeling at the moment.

"Let's just get you something to eat alright kiddo you'll feel a lot better, trust me" said La Flaga helping Kira out of the cockpit as quickly as he could before taking Kira over to the Archangel's mess hall.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Mess HallCafeteria-

* * *

><p>It only took the three of them a few minutes to reach the cafeteria and once Kira was out of hearing range Nathan pulled Mu aside for a moment "Before you ask Kira to do so, I had already told Kira put a lock on the Strike and the AC's so that only the pilots can gain access to their systems" he said while Mu simply grinned at the boy's brilliance.<p>

"You have excellent foresight you know that?" Mu complimented with a chuckle before the two of them went to their respective tables.

Nathan was going to go and sit down by himself like he normally did but instead walked over to the table where Kira and his friends were sitting, he didn't understand why he was doing that but Nathan reasoned within himself that he was simply following a direct order from his commanding officer to socialize with other people or at least that's what he kept on telling himself.

Once he sat down on one of the seats near Kira and his friends he heard an irritatingly familiar voice coming from where the food was being served.

"What the hell do you mean you guys don't have any booze? C'mon you got to have to have something!" Drake all but whined as he slammed both his hands onto his head in frustration while the other members of the Black Five attempted to calm him down.

"Well this is happening more quickly than I thought it would" said Nathan with a nonchalant tone as he looked on at the scene in quiet amusement his face not betraying how humorous he thought the situation was.

Sai looked over from the scene to Nathan, puzzled "What do you mean by 'happening more quickly?" he asked arching an eyebrow while Nathan continued to watch his teammate and very nearly rolled his eyes at Drake's antics.

"After each battle Drake normally drinks booze to celebrate our victory and/or survival out during a mission but to be honest I personally think that he just enjoys losing what limited brain cells he has left. And if he's cut off for too long he starts to develop some rather…odd withdrawal symptoms" he explained vaguely before taking a bite out of the meatloaf that was on his plate.

Mir tooka curious glance at Drake for a moment watching the man make a scene in the cafeteria before she raised an eyebrow as she questioned how in the hell could a grown man act like that?

"What kind of withdrawal symptoms?" she asked before Nathan finished chewing a bite of meatloaf and he gave Mir a hard look as if he was wondering if she had seriously just asked him that "Trust me when I say that you just don't want to know" Nathan said simply and everyone decided to leave things at that while Drake continued to whine about the lack of alcoholic beverages in the mess hall of the ship.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset looked at the message he had just received from the Plants supreme council. It was an outright demand that he return and explain his actions at Heliopolis. Le Creuset wasn't surprised in the least by this, after all it was only a matter of time before the supreme council had figured out what had happened there and demanded that he return immediately and explain himself<p>

"Captain get Athrun aboard this ship immediately and then set us a course for the PLANTs" he ordered before Ades looked at Le Creuset with an odd look on his face. After all when the masked commander had a goal in mind he kept on pursuing it until there he had accomplished his objectives this kind of movement just wasn't like him.

"Sir we almost have them cornered are you sure you-" he started but was interrupted when Rau handed him a piece of paper with Supreme Chairmen Siegel Clyne's signature on it. The letter was outright demanding that the commander return to the homeland and explain his actions at once and from the look of the tone of the letter. Ades looked slightly frustrated at it, he didn't particularly approve of some of Rau's methods but he had to give the man credit that he could at least get the job done right and very quickly. Being called back to the homeland would be completely pointless in this situation because it wouldn't accomplish anything that they had set out to do when they had destroyed the entirety of Heliopolis.

"Don't worry captain the Gamow will continue the pursuit of the Legged Ship while we return to the homeland besides we're in no position to be picking any fights with the enemy" he explained and Ades who sighed, he supposed that it didn't matter anyway besides its not like the Archangel would get very far after reaching Artemis.

"Aye aye sir, helmsman lay in the fastest course for the PLANT's immediately" he ordered and the helmsman did as he was told and set a course for the homeland at best possible speed that they could manage at the moment.

-Archangel Bridge-

Raphael had just received word from the Zeus that they would be docking along with the Archangel so that they could begin repairing the Zeus' weapons and armor which had sustained quite a bit of damage after the battle of Heliopolis their main cannon's heat absorbers had been all but destroyed during the battle for Heliopolis rendering the firing of the main gun unadvisable if they wanted to keep the ship and its crew from melting.

The red haired man floated towards Murrue and stopped several feet in front of her "Before we attempt to dock at Artemis I feel that you should know something about the commander of that base" said Raphael serious as always "I'm listening" she said patiently.

"Admiral Garcia is a glory hound and since he was been stationed at Artemis he feels that the base he is in charge of is impenetrable it has made him even more complacent than he normally is. I would recommend that we share as little information with him as possible" said Raphael

Ensign Badgiruel looked stunned at their liaison officer "Are you suggesting that we lie to a superior officer?" she demanded before Raphael gave a witty grin to the by the book ensign.

"Now, now ensign don't think of it as lying think of it as telling a partial truth" he said almost sounding like a lawyer.

Natarle was about to make a retort to the Hispanic mercenary when Mir turned her head to the captain and said "Captain it's Artemis they're demanding to know who we are and what it is we're doing here"

"Put it on Speakers" Murrue ordered and Mir pushed a couple of buttons and seconds later the voice of what everyone assumed to be the voice of the communications officer of the base came on through the speakers.

"Attention unidentified ships state your intentions in this sector or you will be considered hostile" said the voice calmly as though this was just another day for them.

"This is acting captain Murrue Ramius of the Atlantic Federation warship Archangel along with our Black Skulls escort ship, Zeus we have been pursued by ZAFT forces all the way from Heliopolis and we are in desperate need of supplies" Murrue announced. There was silence on the other line for a few seconds before the same voice came up again on the speakers.

"The Archangel is clear for docking but the Zeus however must stay in orbit around the station"

"Understood Archangel going into docking patterns" said Murrue who turned to Mir and ordered her to tell the Zeus about their change in docking protocols.

The girl did so and began to inform the Zeus' captain about their little change in flight plans.

* * *

><p>-Artemis, Rear Admiral Garcia's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Rear admiral Girard Garcia looked at the reports of what had happened at Heliopolis and the fact that the new warship and its cargo had escaped that disaster. The second that he heard about the new mobile suits that the ship was rumored to be carrying he had no other choice but to allow the ship to land.<p>

After all from there it would be relatively easy to impound the ship under suspicion that they were not who they were saying they were. From there all he would have to do is have his technicians and engineers analyze the prototypes and hopefully create a blueprint of the mobile suits that he could send back to Eurasia.

In the machines and quite possibly the ship itself were hopefully plans for several mobile suits which would prove to be invaluable to Eurasia or any par of the Earth Forces since they had thus far been unable to create any form of mass produced MS that a Natural could pilot since the war had begun.

If Garcia were to turn some of the design specifications or maybe even a few of the machines themselves over to Eurasian command he could earn himself a promotion or at least some brownie points that could transfer him to someplace that was a bit more cozy than this pit of a base. Right now though all he had to do was wait a little bit longer for the Archangel to dock with its precious cargo.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>It took a few minutes but once they had finally docked with Artemis the entire ship was quickly stormed with heavily armed soldiers who aimed their weapons at the bridge staff and they seemed a little more than willing to use their weapons if they were being given so much as the slightest amount of trouble. After the guards had stormed the bridge admiral Garcia's right hand man, commander Biddaulph walked in Murrue and Natarle looked at the man in confusion and shock wondering what the hell was going on with all of the armed guards.<p>

"Commander I demand some sort of an explanation!" said Natarle.

Biddaulph leveled a glare at the young ensign "We had allowed you to land despite the fact that your ship has no recognition codes of any kind therefore until we are absolutely sure of what your true identities are your ship will be impounded here indefinitely" he said before turning to look at the key officers along with Mu La Flaga.

"Now the three of you along with the mercenary here are to report admiral Garcia at once, there is no room for negotiation on this" he said before the guards leveled their weapons at the officers quietly ordering them in a not so subtle manner to follow Garcia's second in command's instructions to the letter.

After going through several security checkpoints in which they were scanned for any at all possible weapons. This process was made even longer when Raphael had to remove his pistol and his throwing knives that he kept hidden on his person and then they had to go through a more thorough search in which they padded each and everyone of them down for any kind of a weapon that they could have been hiding underneath their clothing. After almost twenty minutes of searching and scanning they finally made got to the admiral's office.

Admiral Garcia's office was more like a first class hotel room than an office. There were several well crafted paintings created by well known painters on the wall, leather seats and behind the admiral was an enormous display screen that depicted a forest. All in all it was more like a fancy hotel room than where the commanding officer of a military base spent most of his time.

Garcia motioned for them to relax and he gave a wry smile "I just confirmed that your ship carries authentic Atlantic Federation ID's" he said

"We apologize for any kind of problems we may have caused you" said Mu while Raphael looked at Mu incredulously, the asshole in front of them should have been the one apologizing for having his men storm the ship and take everyone in the Archangel prisoner before he had his little attack dog Biddaulph to practically drag them to his office which was more like a luxury hotel room.

"Think nothing of it Lieutenant La Flaga, after all I'm actually very well acquainted with the name that the Atlantic Federation soldiers have given you, the Hawk of Endymion, I too saw my fair share of war while I was stationed at the Grimaldi front" he said. Raphael tried to resist the urge he truly did but he just couldn't resist criticizing people that he couldn't under any circumstances respect especially if they were with the Eurasian military "Really admiral, you were on the front lines with the rest of the real soldiers or were you behind friendly lines drinking tea with the other cowards?" he asked with a sneer.

The other three Archangel officers looked at the man like he was crazy while the admiral leveled a glare at him but otherwise ignored the man. He then tapped a button on his console. The monitor behind him changed from a peaceful forest to a view of Artemis which currently had the umbrella shield activated and he then tapped in another command on the console which showed a ZAFT military ship nearby (the Gamow).

"This ZAFT ship has been in the area for the past hour and a half we can't lower the umbrella until they have left the area of the base" said the admiral almost nonchalantly like his base came under attack almost every other day that it was almost boring him.

"Admiral that's part of the Le Creuset team I need to know if this base is safe from attack" said Murrue almost worried but the admiral chuckled and waved her off which was a little unnerving that he didn't seem at all worried about the safety of the base

"Don't worry miss Ramius we get ZAFT forces down here all the time they land a couple dozen shots on the umbrella shield but they always leave after a day or so when their attacks prove to be ineffective" the admiral assured before he adopted a serious look on his face.

"Now I'm having the four of you put into guest quarters until further notice, consider this your shore leave here for the time being" he said before the Archangel's commanding officers were taken rather forcefully by several guards despite their protests about needing to get back to their ship immediately.

Garcia then heard knocking coming from the entrance to his office. He gave the soldier permission to enter, the soldier in question was just a junior grade lieutenant in the Eurasian military. The lieutenant gave the admiral a respectful salute. Garcia almost chuckled but held it in "At ease soldier now what do you need?" he asked.

The junior grade lieutenant respond immediately and without any hesitation in his voice "Sir we've located one of the prototypes on board the ship but so far we have been completely unable to activate it because someone on board the ship, most likely the pilot or chief engineer has managed to put a lock on its systems only the pilot can activate it now" he said which nearly infuriated Garcia but he calmed himself by thinking that all he had to do was find the pilot which couldn't prove to be that difficult.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Cafeteria-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan was starting to get nervous but he dared not show it for fear of appearing weak to a possible enemy. He had just been told by some of the other Archangel staff. Mainly those who were forced down here from the bridge that Raphael, the acting captain, XO and Mu La Flaga had been taken almost a couple of hours ago to see the base's commander.<p>

Early in the seizing of the ship by their so-called "Allies" Nathan quickly memorized routes that the guards were using around the cafeteria and noticed that without a synchronized strike at the same time from at least eight different people each of which had to be able to overpower a trained soldier that was armed with a machine gun they weren't going to be able to fight their way out of this.

For now the Red Eyed Devil decided to play it safe until he could make use of a distraction. For the most part the cafeteria wasn't exactly the most quiet of places everyone was whispering about what was going on and some asked others why armed guards were holding them prisoner there.

"One of them said that we don't have proper recognition codes and that until they confirm who we are we're stuck here" said Tolle.

"Please their probably just using that as an excuse but you have to wonder what their really after" explained Sai to which Kira looked a little more than worried when he remembered that Mu had told him earlier that Nathan had a lock installed on the Strike and the AC's. If what they were after was the Strike than eventually they would find out that it had a lock and that they wouldn't be able to access the machine's computers until they had found the pilot.

The door to the cafeteria slid open before admiral Garcia walked in while he was flanked by several guards and his second in command lieutenant colonel Biddaulph. the admiral stayed near the door and began searching the group of people that were seated nearby.

"Who among you is the pilot and mechanic of the new Atlantic Federation mobile suit" Garcia demanded with a calm tone to his voice. Kira was about to stand up and announce himself as the pilot but was held back by Murdoch. He then recalled the conversation that he had with Mu earlier.

"_Nathan told me that he had Murdoch install a lock on the Strike's systems so that only you can access it so unless you have no other choice don't go telling anyone that you're a Coordinator or that you're the pilot of that machine"_ he had warned.

Since no one stood up or announced themselves as the pilot of the new mobile suit Garcia frowned and decided to use the next best tactic that was available to him. The admiral motioned for Biddaulph to grab a nearby girl, a red head to be precise who was wearing an Earth Forces volunteer outfit who began to attempt to struggle out of the soldier's grip but with no luck.

"Well the acting captain is a woman, what's to say that the Strike's pilot isn't female as well!" Garcia announced with a smirk. Kira had had ust about enough of this, he stood up causing the admiral to look at him "Let her go I'm the pilot!" he said calmly never breaking eye contact with the admiral. Garcia almost laughed at that little declaration. Honestly, how stupid did this kid think he was?

"You're the pilot? Don't make me laugh boy after all you're just some kid!" he said before Flay looked at the admiral almost desperately "Yes he is! He's a Coordinator after all!" she blurted out without even thinking of the consequences. Almost everyone just looked stunned at what was happening except for the Admiral who gave a sickening smirk.

"Well now that is interesting, yes very interesting. You're coming with me boy and bring his little lady friend in case the boy needs some extra motivation." he said turning his head towards several guards who immediately moved to take the two. Nathan was about to get up and try to fight his way out but was held down by Cross who had been recently thrown into the cafeteria with the other Black Skulls.

"Sorry kiddo but their's nothing any of us can do right now" he said. Nathan clenched his fists trying to control his frustration he _hated_ not being able to do anything!

* * *

><p>-Artemis Hangers-<p>

* * *

><p>After a short ride the group arrived at the hanger where thy were keeping the Strike, Flay didn't make it an easy trip for the admiral as they made their way ther right<p>

"You do realize who my father is right?" Flay demanded angrily while Garcia almost laughed at that statement "Of course I do Miss Allster but let me be honest with you, that man couldn't find his own head with a map and a three sided mirror". The Eurasian admiral then turned his head towards Kira and smirked.

"So tell me pilot how does it feel to betray your own kind?" he mocked. Kira then looked especially uncomfortable as he remembered what Athrun had said during the last battle.

"_We're Coordinators we aren't supposed to be fighting each other!"_

"But I didn't betray anyone I just trying to-" Kira started but was cut off by the admiral "You piloted that suit against your fellow Coordinators didn't you? That effectively makes you a traitor doesn't it?" Garcia asked rhetorically.

"But for now get to work on that lock!" he ordered. Kira did as he was told and got in the cockpit and began to type away randomly at the keyboard trying to stall them.

Admiral Garcia got impatient and signaled his men to grab the girl before he pulled a gun out of his hip holster and pointed it at Flay's head who while she looked in shock and fear at the admiral "You do realize we have your little girlfriend right here so I suggest you hurry up and remove that lock" he said.

Kira looked nervous and decided to try and stall for time "I'm sorry but when you and your men tried to remove the lock they ended up messing with some of the systems it's going to take me a little while to fix the damage" he said while Garcia stroked his chin for a moment in thought.

He did know for a fact that some of his technicians could be rather incompetent and it was possible that they had messed with the system but it was also just as possible that the kid was just stalling. Garcia could just as easily blow the girl away for lying to him but then some of his leverage over the young Coordinator would be gone and he would have no reason to cooperate with him.

"You have ten minutes and after that say good bye to your girlfriend" he warned.

Kira began to type away seemingly at random while he prayed to whatever deity was out there to help get him and Flay out of this mess. After a minute or two of typing his prayers were answered. Several explosions rocked the entire station distracting the admiral and his subordinates long enough for Kira to remove the lock and activate the Strike. The soldiers quickly noticed a mobile suit make its way into the base. It was one of the stolen prototypes, the Blitz.

Not wasting any time with the opening that he had been given Kira grabbed Flay with the Strike's right hand and lifted her into the cockpit of the enormous machine.

Kira then sealed off the cockpit and activated the phase shift armor and moved forward destroying the empty scaffolding that the admiral and his men had previously been standing on just a few moments earlier.

The second they got off of the hanger scaffold the Blitz opened fire with its Lancer Darts and hit the Strike's armor doing very little damage to the Strike's armor because of the phase shift armor's anti kinetic weapon properties. The Strike however grabbed one of its beam sabers and activated it holding it in front of the machine in a defensive posture to ward off any further attacks.

When the rest of the unit began to try and find a way through the umbrella shield Nichol had suggested that they leave sensor range before dropping him while he was in the Blitz out into space so that he could infiltrate Artemis. Under normal circumstances any mobile suit would be detected by Artemis and the umbrella shield would activate. However the Blitz had a rather interesting feature built into it.

The mirage colloid system, which would render the mobile suit complete invisibility to both the naked eye and to military sensors. Unfortunately this stealth system came with a price. While the mirage colloid system was activated phase shift armor was useless because of the power drain it would cause the suit. However he could still open fire with some of the Blitz's weapons at least while cloaked.

Once the Blitz got passed Artemis' deactivated umbrella shield it was easy for Nichol to go in and eliminate the reflection dishes that allowed the umbrella shield to be used around the base rendering Artemis' main defense completely useless. At the moment he was in front of the Strike that had just activated. Nichol reacted instinctively by firing the lancer darts that the Blitz normally carried. He realized his mistake too late after the dust had cleared, the Strike's phase shift had activated and there wasn't a mark on it

"Oh no" he mumbled before he heard a voice shout "Just leave us alone!" Nichol instantly deduced that the Strike's pilot had said that, he sounded like he was around the same age that he was. The Strike then drew its beam saber and entered a defensive stance as if the pilot was daring Nichol to attack him.

Nichol fired the Blitz's Panzer Eisen rocket anchor directly at the Strike who quickly used a quick boost from the thrusters to move to the side of the hanger dodging the Blitz's weapon. The green haired Coordinator activated the anchor's retrieval unit and the weapon came back to its holster. Kira was about to go on the offensive when he heard a noise that sounded like a thruster but a face popped up on the communications screen it was Nathan's.

Kira's eyes widened a moment before Nathan spoke answering Kira's unasked question "We managed to overpower the guards that were holding us, the Archangel is beginning to fall back you are to go with them I'll cover your retreat and meet up with you"

The young Coordinator just looked at him for a moment, normally he would protest just leaving but he had Flay on board and he couldn't risk her getting killed "Okay but once I drop off Flay I'm coming back for you Nathan" he stated and after Kira was done talking Flay could swear she saw the ghost of a smile on Nathan's face "Good Kira your learning. A good soldier never leaves a man behind" he said before the AC pilot closed off communications with the Lucifer before he began to head back to the Archangel to drop off Flay.

Nichol looked at the Raven operator and remembered who it was he was facing, the Red Eyed Devil and the Blitz was suddenly bombarded by a series of beam rifle bursts from the machine's rifle. Nichol had used quite a bit of the Blitz's power supply when he used the Mirage Colloid and the fact that he was being hit by energy weapons wasn't helping matters at all. The Blitz began to fall back a bit while shooting at the Lucifer with his own beam weapon as well.

The Lucifer holstered its sub machine gun and begin to charge the Blitz while firing its beam rifle. It then activated its energy blade and quickly closed the distance between them using the Lucifer's thrusters. Nichol was barley able to bring up the blitz's shield which was built to be protected from beam and other energy weapons but if it was hit continuously by a beam weapon the shield would eventually buckle.

The energy blade didn't cut through the shield immediately but it eventually it would be like an electric table saw through wood. Nichol backed off by using the thrusters to jump backwards and he deactivated the Blitz's phase shift armor, it was a risky move but he needed to get out of there, the Red Eyed Devil was putting a lot of pressure on him, he then activated the mirage colloid and flew out a nearby breach in Artemis' hull.

Nathan waited for a few moments but after almost thirty seconds he decided to take a chance and decided that the Blitz wasn't going to come back to face him.

He was almost disappointed that he wasn't able to finish the fight he had with the ZAFT pilot but he supposed that there would be future opportunities. He then began to pilot his own machine out of the severely damaged space station and flew back to the Archangel where everyone was more than likely waiting for him.

As Kira piloted the Strike, Flay sat behind the seat of the cockpit and sighed. She never felt this terrible in her life, she had sold out Kira as a Coordinator to that crooked admiral and then she had been saved by Kira just a few minutes later. Life was ironic sometimes, she hated Coordinators but Kira had never done anything to deserve that kind of hatred and she had treated him like dirt simply because of his genes and now the boy had just saved her life.

"Um, Kira listen I'm sorry I shouldn't have sold you out like that, it was wrong" she said a little awkwardly. Kira turned from the main screen in front of him and he said "It's alright besides it was a pretty stressful situation" he said almost instantly accepting the apology "Thank you" she said giving Kira a genuine smile as they headed back to the Archangel.

To be continued


	6. Memories of Junius Seven

Armored Seed

Chapter 6

Memories of Junius Seven

A/N: some of this chapter will have some sad moments so don't say I didn't warn you

Disclaimer: I own neither Armored Core nor Gundam Seed or any of it's characters aside the ones that I have personally created.

* * *

><p>-PLANT's Council chambers-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Rau Le Creuset had just finished giving his version of events that led up to the destruction of Heliopolis to the council. Prior to arriving at PLANTs Rau had taken the time to rewrite several facts, one of which was that rather than his usage D-Class equipment inside Heliopolis that destroyed the colony it was instead the Archangel's anti-ship weaponry.<p>

Another was that a mere Natural was piloting the Strike rather than a Coordinator who had been living at the colony. After all the entirety of the council would be in an absolute uproar if they found out that one of their own kind was fighting for the Earth Forces

After giving his version of what had happened the council seemed shocked but they tried to keep it hidden, at least until commander Le Creuset was finally finished with his little briefing. "To explain the new mobile suits capabilities I have brought the pilot of the Aegis, Athrun Zala to explain" said Rau letting Athrun take this part of the report. Athrun began to explain the armor, weapons and various abilities that the mobile suits were capable of. Images flashed of the various Gundams that they had captured in combat on the screens of the councilors.

"My current mobile suit is the Aegis it is equipped with four beam sabers that are mounted on the hands and feet of the unit, as well as a beam rifle for ranged combat, it is also capable of transforming into a mobile armor unit and in this form it is capable of using a Scylla class beam cannon which is more than capable of destroying entire warships. The next is the Duel which we have discovered to be the basis of all five Gundams, it has two beam sabers as well as a high output beam rifle equipped with an under-slung grenade launcher." the images then switched from the Duel and the Aegis to the Buster and the Blitz in combat.

"The Buster is a fire support and artillery unit. It carries no close combat weapons and is instead outfitted with a gun launcher and beam cannon which can be combined to form either a long range sniper rifle, or a high powered energy shotgun. It is also equipped with short range missile pods mounted into the shoulders of the unit. Finally the Blitz it is equipped with a beam rifle and beam saber as well as several lancer darts mounted into its shield that can be used as either ranged weaponry or as close quarters weapons. The Blitz is also equipped with a Gleipnir Anchor unit which can pierce through an enemy unit and retrieve it on a line. In addition to having the same anti kinetic weapons armor that all of the prototypes carry it also comes with the mirage colloid stealth system that renders it almost completely invisible to the naked eye and to enemy sensors. And finally the Strike, the Strike is a general purpose mobile suit it's capable of using several different upgrade packages for different situations one is a sword upgrade unit which equips an eighteen meter long anti ship sword which is capable of destroying battleships along with a beam boomerang another is the heavy weapon unit which carries a beam cannon capable of blasting through a colony wall as well as a shoulder mounted heavy machine gun" he said concluding his report

By the end of his report the council who had been pretty much calm and collected earlier had turned into a complete uproar. If a Natural could pilot one of these monsters if Le Creuset's report was to be believed then the Naturals were close to mass production. Eventually the council calmed down and began to calmly discuss what was to be done about this new threat.

* * *

><p>-Archangel cafeteria-<p>

* * *

><p>It had been almost four days since the Archangel's escape from Artemis and the situation aboard both ships had been deteriorating quickly, their food rations they could easily stretch until they reached the Earth Forces moon base. Water however was a different story altogether. Their water supplies had been quickly getting shorter and shorter in the past two days, and all of the key officers were beginning to realize that unless they got water soon they weren't going to make it to moon.<p>

"You've got to be kidding me I can't even take a shower?" Flay whined as she put her hands over her face in frustration. Tolle frowned he hated it when people whined constantly "You do realize we're low on water right?" he deadpanned tired of the red haired girl's nagging. Flay's eyebrow twitched angrily "Maybe you like wallowing in your own filth but at least I don't!" she exclaimed.

Adam watched the exchange and chuckled before he turned to the rest of his team. "You know I actually enjoy watching this it's like one of those sitcoms with an old married couple," he said holding back even more laughter while he hoped that the two didn't hear his little comment or else they would focus their anger out on him rather than each other and that wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as this.

"Who do think's going to win this pissing match?" asked Drake not taking his eyes off of the action for a second "Don't know they seem to be near evenly matched in this," he said stroking his chin in thought before Drake gave an almost evil grin signaling that the man had just gotten an idea.

"Hey Adam fifty says that Flay wins," he said pulling some cash out of his wallet. At first Black team's sniper didn't know whether or not to take the bet, Flay could be stubborn as hell which wouldn't work in his favor but he decided what the heck he didn't have much else to do at the moment.

"Sure why not," he said while Kira looked at the two of them in disbelief "You guys are betting on who wins the argument?" he asked not really believing what it was he was seeing from the two Ravens.

"Kira those two idiots will make bets over the most ridiculous things and you'll just have accept their activities or else you'll go insane from trying to rationalize their irrational antics," Cross explained even as he rolled his eyes at the two making the bet. Flay and Tolle continue arguing for a few more seconds before Sai decided to play the peace maker and stop the fighting. Adam and Drake both sighed having lost the chance to get a few bucks from the other but were also thankful that they wouldn't be losing any of their money either.

The kids from Heliopolis then sat down and began to eat the food that they were given, Flay however had taken to sitting near Kira. It seemed to almost everyone on board that the red haired girl was slowly starting to get over her old prejudices. This was a relief to the Black Skulls who were afraid that if she continued to spout out the same bigoted shit that she had been saying just a couple of days earlier they feared that Nathan might do something…rash because of his near extreme hatred for the Blue Cosmos and for those who so much as shared an inkling with any of their beliefs.

"Hey where's Nathan?" asked Flay noticing that he was the only one not present. Li looked over at her and said "He's probably in the hanger still working on the energy output of the Lucifer's energy blades." Kuzzey raised an eyebrow he'd been thinking about the guy's attitude for a while now.

"You know I've wondered if there's something really wrong with that guy. I mean all that he really seems to care about is either fighting or maintaining his machine you'd think that he'd be a little more social with other people," he wondered aloud and he instantly knew that he had made a mistake because the entirety of Black Team was glaring angrily at him.

Cross however was giving the kid a stern glare that overshadowed the others from Black Team. This in itself made Kuzzey and his friends a little more than nervous.

"I recommend you watch what it is you say about him boy, Nathan's life has been a living hell for the past year, so I would suggest that you actually try and get to know him before you decide to make any kind of snap judgments about him," he warned.

The rest of the meal continued in an awkward silence before acting captain Ramius' voice came over the intercom ordering the group to report to the bridge.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Everyone had arrived at the bridge only to find that Nathan was already on the bridge waiting for them by one of the computer consoles and he looked as stoic as ever.<p>

"Everyone I've got some good news we've found a place where we can get quite a bit of supplies" said Raphael while the onlookers save for Nathan looked all but shocked they weren't expecting to find someplace that they could get resupply.

"We've found somewhere that we can get supplies from?" asked Sai with hope in his voice.

"Currently we're on a course for the debris belt" said Murrue and everyone realized just what they were intending to do. Once the word debris belt was said Kira noticed that Nathan had clenched his fists but still looked stoic but it was obvious to the young Coordinator that Nathan was trying to reign in some of his anger.

"So you're saying we're to simply just go in there and take whatever we please from the dead that are in orbit?" Nathan asked his anger beginning to rise. None of the other crewmembers from the Archangel hadn't seen this side to Nathan he was mostly just a serious and stoic person and seeing him angry was very unnerving to everyone.

"We don't have much choice because if we don't we aren't going to last very long," said Mu trying to defuse the situation before Nathan exploded with anger.

Nathan looked all but furious but before he could do or say anything Murrue spoke "Look Nathan, we aren't going to loot the ships we're just taking the water and similar supplies that's all." That seemed to calm Nathan down a little.

"Now we'd like you to use the worker pods to gather what supplies we can from damaged ships we aren't going to take anything other than what we need" Natarle assured. Nathan thought about it for a moment then said "Okay I'll go with them but that doesn't mean I have to like it," he said with a slight glare.

-Debris belt-

It took only a few minutes for everyone to get suited up and into the worker pods (A/N: I'm not really sure what it is that they're called in the anime/manga so I'm just going to call them worker pods). Nathan and Kira had launched out ahead of the pods but not too far so that they wouldn't be able see them through all of the bits and pieces of scrap and other such junk that were from the many random ships that were still in orbit even after all this time.

As the groupcontinued through the debris field Nathan picked something up on his sensors it was huge bigger than anything else in the debris belt combined.

Once the object got into visual range Nathan'seyes widened '_Oh dear god I don't want to see this again,' _he thought his eyes widening and he was struggling to hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him.

"It's the remains of Junius Seven," said Kira painfully and sorrowfully. Flay had her own reaction though, from with the resource pod's zoom function in the cockpit she could easily make out a large amount of floating corpses near what was left of the destroyed colony, some of which were just children that appeared to be no older than ten years of age.

Upon seeing those corpses Flay's prejudice towards Coordinators began to drop to an all time low. She began to wonder to herself why her father would support people who would do something this evil. Was modifying your genes really such a crime that it warranted the death and mass murder of so many people?

They sat there for what had felt like an eternity before Murrue's face appeared on the communication screen she looked somewhat guilty. She gave out a sigh knowing that this wouldn't be easy for them to hear "Listen there's several million tons of frozen water there and-" she started but before she could continue Nathan's voice came over the com channels. He was pissed to say the least.

"Like hell we're going down there lady I'm not a grave robber especially if I'm to steal something from the site of that massacre and I refuse to become one!" Nathan yelled angrily and soon everyone voiced their own agreements with him.

Ramius was about to respond but Mu moved in front of her and spoke "Look all we need is to get some of the water that's stored there I promise that's all no looting, no desecrating the dead all right we're only here for what we need to survive," he said.

Nathan growled for a second knowing that they weren't going to make it very long without water "God dammit, alight fine!" Nathan spat angrily before the communications feed to the archangel cut out. Kira didn't like this either despite the fact they were only going to take several hundred gallons of frozen water it still felt like he was robbing from the thousands of innocent people that had died in that massacre but they had no other options available to them.

Nathan took the lead in front of the resource pods and as he got closer he kept seeing the face of a blue haired girl with a warm and kind smile every time he so much as closed his eyes. Nathan sighed there was no avoiding it. He had to go and see her again, even if it was just one last time.

"Listen Kira I'm going to land down there, there's something I just have to do before we turn around and leave this graveyard," he said almost sadly which struck Kira as odd. In the few short weeks that Kira had known Nathan he hadn't shown much emotion other than anger when he was on the rare occasion that he was royally pissed off at somebody and that was only just a few minutes ago.

The Lucifer engaged it's thrusters and landed in a nearby field that was clear of debris or any floating corpses. While he landed the resource pods began their own descent "Hey what's Nathan doing?" asked Mir watching the AC land on the field before continuing "He seemed to be against so much as setting foot on Junius Seven so why's he landing there?"

"Think we should follow him?" Tolle asked who was just as curious as his girlfriend was on what it was Nathan was doing.

"I think that we should focus on getting the frozen water here plus I saw what he looked like he was about to do captain Ramius and I'd rather not get on that man's bad side," Sai suggested and while he was just as curious as everyone else but he felt that the task at hand was far more important. Kira however became a little too curious so he began to follow him besides the others didn't need him to gather the frozen water.

* * *

><p>-Ruins of Junius Seven residential area 1832 Cherry Grove Lane-<p>

* * *

><p>'<em>I can't believe that it's been over a year since I last visited this place,'<em> he thought to himself as he stared at the old signpost on the side of the road. He looked back down and walked past the sign post and continued down the old ruined street although he was going a little slower than he should have been since the gravity was near zero and it was difficult to go at a faster pace.

As Nathan walked towards his destination he felt the guilt eat away at him faster than it had been for the past year. He should've been there he could have stopped it from happening but no he was running maintenance tests on a couple of armored cores several hundred thousand miles away.

He walked behind the house and there were three graves waiting for him. He knew exactly which one he was looking for he saw the grave in the middle that had a small photo of a beautiful light blue haired girl with yellow eyes. Nathan approached the grave and got down on one knee and sighed 'It's the same as I remember it' the young Raven operator thought before he heard steps behind him. Nathan had the feeling that he was being followed and he turned around and saw Kira standing there

"What the hell do you want?" asked Nathan his stoic mask back on. Kira then felt like he had just intruded on something private but he was already here so he may as well just state his intentions "You wandered off and I got curious I wanted to see where it was you were going," said Kira "Just visiting someone I lost," he said his normally calm and collective visage slipping again when he referred to the grave of the light blue haired girl.

"Who was she?" Kira asked, his tone gently before Nathan chuckled humorlessly "Her name was Mira she was a concert musician not as well known as the pop star Lacus Clyne but she did alright she and the rest of her orchestra band played songs from some of the greatest composers and musicians of all time from Mozart to Bach. Whenever people heard their band play they considered it a symbol of hope that peace would endure but unfortunately for everyone who lived here or liked her music less than a week after their last concert, the Atlantic Federation nuked the colony, her along with it." Kira looked horrified at this.

Someone who gave people so much hope for peace and a brighter future was killed in an attack that began a turning point in a war. It was a sad and sickeningly ironic fate for someone like that.

"You loved her didn't you?" he asked. Nathan said nothing but his silence was more than an adequate answer for him. Nathan stood before he turned to face Kira his calm features had returned but Kira could tell that what he was really feeling was still threatening to surface "Can you promise me you won't tell anyone about this? I don't want to deal with anyone's pity."

"Alright, I promise" said Kira he'd respect Nathan's privacy until he was ready to share it with everyone else.

It took the two of them only about ten to fifteen minutes to get back to where the worker pods had landed all the while the whole trip back proceeded in complete silence. Upon arriving back there they found that their friends were all but finished gathering the frozen water from various sources like the water production facility that was on the colony.

"Where have you two been? We finished this up several minutes ago," asked Kuzzey. Kira tried to stumble out an answer but Nathan interrupted him "Just visiting the grave site of a friend that's all," he said and the others although they looked like they wanted to ask more decided that it would be best to just leave it at that.

* * *

><p>-Debris belt-<p>

* * *

><p>As the group headed back to the Archangel, Kira spotted a PLANT's shuttlecraft that looked relatively new compared to the other wrecked spacecraft that were now part of the debris field. Upon closer inspection Kira noticed that there was a GINN long range recon variant near the wreckage and he saw a person in a ZAFT pilot suit leaving the wreck they seemed to be searching for something or someone.<p>

After a few more moments someone left the wreckage of the ship and entered the mobile suit. It was clear that they either didn't find what they were looking for or they did and were heading back to the ship that they had came from.

As the person got back into the mobile suit Kira had finally realized something. He had been killing people that were inside those GINNs that he had fought back at Heliopolis. He hadn't really had time to think about it actually considering that he had the thinking about the fact that he was now fighting his oldest friend on his mind.

"Come on just leave please just leave don't see us," Kira begged to himself hoping that he wouldn't have to kill anyone after having to visit that graveyard. As the woman entered the mobile suit Kira remembered that there were other people piloting those mobile suits. When Kira was in battle he seemed to have blocked the fact that he was fighting other people from his mind.

The GINN then flew off and Kira sighed but then it suddenly turned around and spotted the resource pods and raised its assault rifle "Kira please help!" Flay cried desperately upon seeing the recon class GINN raise its weapon. Kira and Nathan reacted almost instantly and opened fire with their beam weapons.

The first shot from Kira's rifle blew off the GINN's right arm in which it was using to hold its weapon the next was from Nathan which tore through the GINN's head, destroying its only way of observing what was going on outside. The next and final shot came from the Strike that tore through the cockpit killing the crew and going out the other side before the recon GINN blew up in a fiery explosion.

Kira just looked out in shock at what had just happened. _'I just killed two people,'_ he thought to himself in disbelief "Thanks Kira I thought we were screwed back there," said Tolle while the others also offered their thanks but Kira didn't seem to hear them he was too caught up with the fact that he had just killed someone. Tears were beginning to pour down his cheeks and he was now almost completely filled with guilt that he had just murdered several people.

Kira didn't want to kill anyone but it was foolish and utterly naïve to think that he wouldn't end up killing someone if he was piloting a mobile suit. Once he calmed down a little he realized that there was a ZAFT life boat on the sensors and it was recently launched as well judging by the amount of heat it was giving off from the thermal detection unit. Kira moved in and gently began to drag it back to the Archangel hoping that there was someone still alive inside it.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>A few moments later the life boat was brought on board the Archangel with surprisingly no complaints from Natarle especially since they had already brought in a previous one just a couple of days ago so it made little difference if someone else was brought on board or at least that's what she had thought anyway.<p>

Everyone was looking at the Life boat and a few guards had been stationed nearby since they had no idea what was inside the machine.

"You know Kira you sure have a knack for picking up things that people have left behind, I hear the Junk Guild is hiring," Mu joked trying to break the ice a little. Murdoch however still had a serious look on his face as he tried to override the door access codes for the pod.

"Could everyone please keep quiet I'm trying to open this thing," Murdoch insisted before his job was done and the life boat's doors gave a hiss as air exited the machine. The life boat's hatch opened and a floating pink robot about the shape and size of a basketball flew out, two flap like appendages helping it bounce around in the near zero gravity environment

"Haro, hello, Lacus, Haro," it said to a confused audience. Everyone in the room raised an eyebrow at the strange machine as it floated past them they certainly weren't' expecting something like this when they opened that pod's doors. Then a girl with long pink hair who wore a pink and purple dress stepped out of the pod.

"Thank you for your assistance," she said smiling kindly at them. Almost everyone in the hanger recognized the girl or at least every member of the Black Skulls did, she was the PLANT's supreme chairman Siegel Clyne's daughter and pop star, Lacus Clyne. After all several crewmembers of the Zeus had gone on numerous occasions to her concerts when they had shore leave on the PLANTs.

Mu turned and looked at Kira while he cocked an eyebrow at him "Looks like you brought onboard another hell of a girl," he sighed exasperatedly knowing that this might cause some trouble on board the ship. As Lacus floated towards everyone she quickly noticed that the uniforms that they were wearing weren't ZAFT issue "Um, excuse me but this isn't a ZAFT ship is it?" she asked now suddenly much more nervous than she had been earlier.

"Oh no, oh no," the floating ball spouted out somewhat annoyingly and several members of the Skulls had to restrain themselves from shooting the thing. Kira was the first one to speak up "This is actually an Atlantic Federation ship."

Raphael and Murrue looked at each other for a moment or two before Murrue turned to the girl "I think it would be better if we finished this discussion in my office, Ensign you're in charge until we're finished," she said while Natarle gave a salute.

* * *

><p>-Acting Captain Murrue Ramius' Office-<p>

* * *

><p>Raphael, Mu and Acting Captain Ramius were all sitting down in chairs in her office. Murrue had just finished introducing everyone "Well my name is Lacus Clyne I'm the daughter of the PLANTs Supreme Chairman Siegel Clyne" she said before the mechanical machine she was holding said the word "Haro" while it's flaps extended and moved up and down repeatedly.<p>

"Oh and this is Mr. Pink" she introduced.

"Haro, haro, hello, hello" the floating pink robot ball chirped while it extended its flaps and attempted to bounce around the office before miss Clyne stopped it.

"Well Miss Clyne I feel that I need to ask just what it was that someone like was doing out in the debris field" said Murrue. Lacus then looked slightly saddened.

"Well the anniversary for the Bloody Valentines tragedy is coming up and we were preparing a memorial service for those who had died. The ship we were flying was stopped by an Earth Alliance patrol vessel and they demanded that we be searched thoroughly to make sure we weren't part of the military. We had no problem with this and we allowed the Earth Forces soldiers on board the ship but shortly after they had arrived onboard a fight broke out between the soldiers and several crewmembers and someone pushed me into the life boat and we've been drifting in the debris field for the past several hours."

Mu sighed this wasn't going to be easy for the girl but she deserved to know the truth of what had happened out there "Miss Clyne I'm sorry but we found your ship it was completely destroyed and there were no survivors other than yourself," he explained before Lacus' eyes widened in shock.

"Oh my, are you sure?" The Hawk of Endymion nodded in response.

"Look Miss-" Murrue started "Just Lacus please" the pink haired singer insisted politely "Look, Lacus for the time being please consider yourself a guest aboard this ship but please try and stay out of restricted areas," she said.

Raphael looked a the girl before turning to Murrue "Acting captain I recommend that we settle her in with one of the Black Skulls, a number of the refugees have been showing quite a lot of hostilities towards Coordinators due to their frequent attacks on us and they may feel the need to use her as a kind of scapegoat. Besides many of the Skulls are actually quite fond of her music," Raphael suggested. Murrue thought about the proposal for a few moments before agreeing with the mercenary's suggestion.

"Lacus our Black Skulls liaison officer Raphael will show you to your temporary quarters," said Murrue. The tall red haired man gave polite nod and gestured that the girl should follow him and she did as was directed with "Mr. Pink" trailing close behind them occasionally saying "Haro" once every few seconds.

They reached the crew quarters and Raphael knocked on a nearby door "It's unlocked," said a male voice on the other side. The two of them walked in and Lacus saw a boy who was little more than a year older than her, fixing a handgun over a small table on the far side of the room. He stopped what it was he was doing and turned to face those who had entered his temporary living area.

"So I'm assuming that you're the person that the Strike's pilot had found in the debris belt," he said his face somewhat curious about the girl that they had picked up. "Yes I am Lacus Clyne and this is Mr. Pink, what's your name?" she asked smiling pleasantly while the pink Haro flapped it's "wings" close to her while repeatedly saying "Haro" every now and then.

"Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher Black Skulls Raven unit," he said simply before he returned to work on his disassembled weapon.

Raphael sighed before turning to Lacus "Don't worry, he's always like that. If you need anything let Nathan know and he'll help you with it," he said before he turned to said person "Isn't that right Lieutenant?" he asked. Nathan nodded at the request too engrossed in his work on the handgun to verbally respond.

Lacus came over to Nathan and looked over his shoulder at what he was doing. Nathan knew immediately that Raphael had probably did this to piss him off and by god was it working. He wasn't pissed at his new roommate but at the fact that Raphael and Li had been trying to get him to get over Mira's death for quite some time but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon if ever. Raphael smirked and left the two roommates alone.

The pink haired girl continued to observe what it was that Nathan was doing "What exactly are you doing?" she asked curiously while the pink haro flapped around behind saying "Haro, what are you doing, Haro," once every few seconds "Cleaning my gun I don't want it jamming on me in the middle of a firefight" he said before he began to put some of the smaller pieces back together.

Lacus wasn't a big fan of violence or weapons and since he didn't seem like he wanted to talk to her she quickly decided that it would be for the best if she left him alone for the time being. Lacus then took Mr. Pink and decided to look around the lieutenant's quarters which she had noticed was actually quite clean. She began to have a look around the room and spotted a number of thick almost phone book sized philosophy books on Nathan's bed.

As she looked she also spotted a small photo of a light blue haired girl along with Nathan who for some reason had brown eyes instead of red ones. The two appeared to be very happy together. Clearly there was more to this mercenary than meets the eye. "Um, excuse me Mister Fletcher but can I ask who's in this photo?" Lacus asked the Raven pilot who had finished reassembling his pistol and he put it back in the drawer and locked it.

'_I should have hidden that better,' _he thought. Nathan considered not telling the girl, she would give him sympathy. He never liked it when people gave him pity or sympathy it made him feel like he was helpless or weak, he _hated_ being weak or helpless in any shape or form, period.

Unfortunately for Nathan his stoic mask slipped for a moment and a look of sadness came over his facial features "Mira, her name was Mira."

Lacus saw the look in his eyes and saw the sadness and pain in them and immediately began to apologize "Oh I'm so sorry I didn't mean to intrude on something like that." Nathan sighed he wasn't angry with her, it was only natural for anyone to be curious.

"It's alright" he said, normally he would just bluntly inform her to drop it and leave him but he felt that wouldn't be right "I know I probably shouldn't ask but how did she die?"

"She was on Junius Seven," he said simply and Lacus immediately realized what it was he meant. Although she could act ditsy and naïve at times she was actually quite observant and noticed that he must have considered himself at fault for what had happened to his loved one. Lacus was about to try and tell him that it wasn't his fault but he cut her off.

"Please don't say that it's not my fault because it is. I promised I'd keep her safe and I failed, I was several thousand miles away helping do maintenance on my fucking AC I should have been there and I should have stopped it from happening so please just leave it alone," he said before he looked at the photo again and he chuckled dryly. Normally he wouldn't tell anyone this but Lacus seemed like a very trustworthy person.

"We both had a dream you know, that one day everyone would live in a world without war, a world in which Coordinators and Naturals could put their differences aside and live together in peace but in the end war was the thing that destroyed both of us," he said looking up at the ceiling while trying to hold back tears. The two of them stayed in silence for a few minutes before Lacus' stomach started to rumble.

Nathan raised an eyebrow and asked "You hungry?" in an attempt to change the subject to which Lacus nodded. "Alright I'll take you to the cafeteria," he said eager to try and do something to get the thoughts of the past out of his mind before and the two headed towards the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Cafeteria-<p>

* * *

><p>By now everyone had heard of the Archangel's new guest. Currently Kira and his friends were sitting down and talking about the new arrival.<p>

"So this Lacus Clyne is actually the daughter of the supreme chairman of the PLANTs?" Flay asked genuinely curious as to what a girl like her would be doing in the debris field. Ever since they got back from Junius Seven, Flay didn't seem to hate or fear Coordinators nearly as much as she used to be. It was a change welcomed by Kira and the others but mainly by the young Coordinator who'd obviously been having a crush on the red haired girl for the past year and a half.

"Yeah she was here because she was helping with a memorial service to the victims of the Bloody Valentines tragedy" explained Kira before he bit into the food that he had on his tray. "Still you gotta wonder how the hell did she end up from supporting a memorial service to floating around in a escape pod?" Tolle wondered aloud but nobody had a real answer to that at the moment since no one had told them about what had happened on board the shuttle when it entered the debris field.

The door to the cafeteria hissed open and the pink haired girl form earlier walked in. This made Kira and his friends to turn and look at the new arrival.

"I'm sorry for interrupting anything but I really needed to get something to eat," said Lacus as she appeared in the doorway with Nathan and the pink Haro trailing behind her chirping random things as it floated around the room.

The Red Eyed Devil looked like he always did but his eyes didn't seem to be as cold as they normally were, it would appear that Lacus was having a positive effect on him which was welcomed by much of the Black Skulls and the Archangel's crew.

"It's no problem really" said Kira while Lacus got her food and walked over to where Kira and his friends were sitting.

"So are you the pilot who got me out of the debris field?" Lacus asked to which Kira nodded "Thank you mister…" she said before realizing she didn't know the pilot's name.

"Kira," he said "Kira Yamato." At first the name didn't ring any bells but her mind quickly made the connection, Kira Yamato was the boy that Athrun would almost always talk about, however it could've been just a coincidence that they had the same name but she had to be absolutely sure.

"Do you happen to know a boy named Athrun Zala?" she asked. Now it was Kira's turn to gape at the girl "You know Athrun?" he asked completely bewildered "Why yes we've known each other since we were children and he's my future husband," she said stunning everyone in the room who knew who Athrun was.

The first one to speak was Adam who had quickly regained his composure to speak "Wow, this is really awkward, the fiancé of the guy who's been trying to murder everyone in this room is right in front of us," he muttered while Kira's friends from Heliopolis just looked at both the mercenary and the pop star for a few seconds before they regained their composure.

"You mean a friend of Kira's is out there piloting one of those things?" asked Mir "Well yeah he's part of the Le Creuset team that's been hunting us," explained Adam. Flay looked in surprise at Kira who appeared to be rather nervous.

'_His best friend is piloting one of those stolen mobile suits?' _she didn't know how what to feel about that but it would explain some of the reluctance he had to go out and fight whenever a battle would start.

"Hey Kira look just because your friend is out there trying to kill us doesn't mean we blame you for it," Flay assured and those sitting nearby were all surprised by the way she was acting after all just a few days ago Flay hated Coordinators or at least she did until Kira had saved her twice and she saw what had happened at Junius Seven.

Kira looked over at her with a kind smile on his face "Thank you Flay," he said kindly to her.

They then each introduced themselves and began to talk amongst themselves. As the group continued to chat Li noticed that Flay's prejudice's which were so abundantly clear only a couple of weeks before were all but gone. The mercenary inwardly smiled at her work hoping that Kira would soon take the initiative and maybe ask her out but the boy probably wouldn't if what she heard about the red haired girl being engaged was true to that Sai Argyle kid was true.

Li sighed the boy was too much of a white knight kind of person and more than likely wouldn't attempt to enter a relationship with the girl while she was still engaged. But since arranged marriages rarely worked all Kira has to do was simply wait a little while then make his move and she fully intended to push him in that direction when it occurred.

Besides so far it seemed that the two of them were getting much closer than they were earlier and she found it incredibly cute.

* * *

><p>-PLANT's military dock-<p>

* * *

><p>Once the talks were done it was almost unanimously decided that the Le Creuset team would continue pursuit of the Archangel and the remaining Earth Forces mobile suit. Athrun was currently heading for the Vesalius and he was almost to the hatch when he saw his father and commander Le Creuset talking. Athrun gave a salute to the two of them and his father told him to be at ease.<p>

Rau Le Creuset then told him about Lacus Clyne's disappearance and how they were also being sent in to recover her. Athrun was stunned he hadn't heard anything about his fiancé winding up missing and although it had been reported on the news repeatedly Athrun hadn't had the time to watch it thanks to the fact that he was involved in heavy fighting. The son of ZAFT's Defense Chairman quickly regained his composure and asked "I can understand a search but why employ the Vesalius?" he asked while Rau inwardly smirked.

"My, my what cold unfeeling person you've become Athrun we obviously can't just leave your future wife out there now can we?" he asked leaving a hint of sarcasm in his normally neutral voice but Patrick Zala for the most part just ignored the commander's remark and spoke up.

"Commander Le Creuset is right we can't just let the daughter of the PLANT's Supreme Chairman just stay missing so you and the commander have been given strict orders to bring miss Clyne back alive and if she's already perished by the time you get there to recover her body" his father said with a cold tone to his voice, almost as if he didn't really care one way or another as to what happened to his own son's fiancé.

Athrun couldn't help but notice his father's tone. It was if his dad just thought of Lacus as a political tool. Now that he had begun to think about it he had noticed that his father had been becoming increasingly cold and detached ever since his wife, Athrun's mother had been killed on Junius Seven. However he quickly just rationalized that his father was just trying harder than ever to win the war that the Naturals had started several years ago.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Petty Officer Romero Pal was drinking some coffee while he looked at the communications monitor. He had explicit instructions to report any transmissions that were coming to the ship. He took another sip of his drink and he felt as though he had been looking at the monitor for hours now.<p>

He was about to check his watch to see if his shift was over when apparently a burst transmission came through. After it had finished transmitting he turned to Ramius an anxious look in his eyes "Uh, captain you probably need to hear this" he said. Murrue and some of the other key officers gathered around the communications equipment and Romero played the message over for them.

"This is the Montgomery of the Atlantic Federation's Eighth Fleet to the Archangel please respond" there was some white noise interfering with the transmission but they could at least make out the message that was being sent out to them. They were being rescued at last.

To be continued


	7. Loss

Armored Seed

Chapter 7

Loss

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the Black Skulls, the AC's I've created and the Zeus

* * *

><p>-Vesalius Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset had just looked over the latest intelligence report the Legged Ship was beginning to rendezvous with the Montgomery, Law and the Bernard which would more than likely take them to join the rest of the Eighth Fleet where they would be almost completely untouchable. They would need at least another seventeen GINNs plus the stolen prototypes and even then it would still be somewhat difficult to destroy the Legged Ship with that kind of escort.<p>

"Captain follow the Legged Ship but keep outside of their sensor range" he ordered while Ades gave the commander a confused look but the man should have expected this from Le Creuset by now "Sir I thought we were supposed to continue searching for Lacus Clyne?" he asked "Oh but we will be searching for her as we go after the Legged Ship besides I don't want to be laughed at by future generations because I was too reluctant to destroy an advanced enemy warship." he explained.

In all honesty commander Le Creuset didn't really care about what happened to Lacus and neither did Patrick Zala for that matter. Athrun's father just saw Lacus as a political tool, if she was found dead he'd use her death as an means for him to gather more support.

If she was found alive however he could just as easily say that she was rescued from the Earth Forces. And with that in mind the more appropriate target at the moment was the Legged Ship. They could attempt to locate Lacus Clyne alive or dead at a later time.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>"Captain Ramius I'm receiving a transmission from the Zeus" said Mir from her location in the CIC "Put it on the main monitor" said Murrue. The oversized monitor in front of the bridge blinked to life with the face of captain Hackett "Captain Ramius I've just heard from Raphael here that you will soon be in contact with the Earth Forces Eighth Fleet and I just wanted to let you to know that you still be under our protection until you have reached your headquarters." he said while gesturing to the red haired man in the corner of the room.<p>

Although Murrue had known early on that the main reason that the Zeus was escorting them was to try and get a reward from the Earth Forces it was nice to know that they were at least willing to see it the entire way through "Thank you captain I appreciate all that you have done here" she said genuinely thankful.

"Captain we couldn't just leave you to fend for yourselves it would stain my company's honor and between you and me, this crew hasn't had this much excitement in a long time so thank you for curving our boredom these last couple of weeks" he remarked jokingly.

"And by the way when you meet Mr. Allster please make sure that I'm there he's informed that his daughter wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Kira. I really do wish to see the look on the man's face when you tell him that" he said trying to picture the look on the face of Flay's father when he found out that a _Coordinator_ had saved his daughter several times over the past couple of weeks.

Murrue Ramius herself had actually been just thinking about that and was wondering just how exactly that would turn out and she began to think that it could possibly completely change the man's outlook on Coordinators. However that would be highly unlikely considering the man's possible ties to a certain terrorist organization and their affiliates.

As much as she and several other less bigoted soldiers in the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian militaries hated to admit it, racism towards Coordinators was had been running rampant throughout the Atlantic Federation for several years. The term "Space Monster" was a very common and incredibly bigoted term for those who were born as Coordinators and "Race Traitor" was for those who lived in the PLANTs.

Discrimination and distrust towards Coordinators in the Atlantic Federation was quite common and thus most Coordinators usually lived at the PLANTs or with its allied countries or even at the neutral nation of Orb which had no such discrimination towards anyone.

In fact one of the PLANTs supreme councilors, Patrick Zala used the Earth Forces hatred of Coordinators to fuel his own agenda, his speeches would sometimes declare that the Naturals on Earth who weren't their allies must be defeated for them to be at peace or else they would never stop trying to exterminate them. And while he never openly admitted to the idea of the genocide of every Natural born human, if one looked hard enough the underlying tone was almost always there "We must kill off all of the Naturals on Earth and in the colonies".

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hangers-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan was in the hanger and was currently working his AC's beam rifle output hoping to increase its power without seriously increasing the power drain it would cause on the Lucifer's energy.<p>

Normally it would take around four or five successful hits for a ranged beam weapon to successfully punch through phase shift armor and it took almost eighty four hits from a heavy slug thrower like the Panzer's gatling cannons and even more from smaller caliber weaponry to take down that kind of protection. The only weapon that could possibly go through the PS armor would be a beam saber or a sustained blow from an energy blade which were both close range combat weapons.

Unfortunately for him if he tried to increase the power output on the Lucifer's beam rifle it could render some of the Lucifer's combat equipment completely useless for almost seven or eight seconds because of the power drain that it would cause on the AC's fusion reactor. It wasn't worth losing almost all of the unit's systems just to take down one target just for them to eradicate you a second or two later if the pilot wasn't fast enough to evade the counter strike from the enemy pilots that would be attempting to avenge their fallen comrade.

Not only would the power drain be a problem but also he ran several simulations and each one predicted that a single shot powerful enough to punch straight through PS shields and the armor of the enemy mobile suits but it would also cause a massive heat build up in the weapon.

The massive amount of heat would result in causing the beam rifle to overheat to the point of melting the weapon along with most of the arm that had been using it. Nathan looked over another simulation he ran this time he was using a different type of power supply and beam rifle variant but it still had the exact same result. All of the main power in the AC was gone and the beam rifle and arm that was using it were completely destroyed in the process.

The Raven ace decided that for now he should let the idea go until he found a better energy weapon for the job but at least the single shot could be used as a last resort if he ever decided to use it but even then he would be more liable to use one of his armored core's energy blades than a single shot from a weapon that would quite literally melt the Lucifer's arm off.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>News of the Eighth Fleet's advance forces had increased the morale of everyone on both ships considerably. Almost everyone was in much better spirits especially when the second transmission had said that after they met up with the Eighth Fleet they would be escorted by Admiral Haliburton himself to Lunar Command. It was also discovered from another transmission that Vice Minister Allster would also be on board that ship.<p>

It would be more than pointless to say that Flay Allster was ecstatic just a few days ago she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to see her only remaining family member again. But there he was, on one of the same advance force that was going to be escorting them to the main fleet.

Once Flay got over her surprise however she became just a little nervous about her dad's reaction when he found out about her friendship with a Coordinator and hoped that he would at least try and get to know Kira before he made any snap judgments about him.

"Flay Allster please report to the bridge immediately. I repeat Flay Allster please report to the bridge immediately" captain Murrue Ramius' voice came over the ship's PA system. Flay didn't need to be told twice, she all but dropped what it was she was doing and rushed towards the bridge hoping that she'd be able to speak with her father before they met up with the main element of the Eighth Fleet.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge a few minutes later-<p>

* * *

><p>Flay had just arrived on the bridge and saw her father on the main monitor looking over the bridge crew while the captain of the Zeus appeared on the other half of the ship's communications unit "Daddy" she said trying to hold back tears of joy. The vice minister looked at his daughter and gave a relieved smile. "Flay thank god you're all right" he said before turning to give the Archangel's captain a thankful look.<p>

"You have my gratitude for keeping my daughter safe captain Ramius" he said before Hackett spoke up with a slightly mischievous smile on his lips "Actually sir if you want to thank someone I recommend that you thank Kira Yamato because without him I doubt that any of us would have made it this far" he explained before the vice minister's eyes narrowed in anger, his blind prejudices towards Coordinators overtaking all of his better judgment.

"If captain Ramius' report is to be believed and that boy is truly friends with Athrun Zala one of the PLANTs council members, don't you realize that he must be the reason behind most if not all of the problems you've been having?" he demanded his damned prejudices blinding his judgment.

"Is he always like this?" Raphael leaned in asked Sai who was sitting at a nearby terminal "Only around Coordinators and those who support them" the spectacled boy responded "Ah" the mercenary mouthed. The Zeus crewmember couldn't say that he was that surprised. After all bigotry towards Coordinators ran rampant throughout the Atlantic Federation and most of Eurasia and if his contacts were correct with their information the Atlantic Federation might as well have been run by the Blue Cosmos.

How a terrorist group like them had managed to maneuver their way that far up the political ladder Raphael had no idea but that wasn't the most important thing at the moment. Instead of contemplating the improbability of a terrorist organization becoming a large part of a first world country he decided to simply just watch the rather entertaining argument unfold around him. Hackett was about to make a protest at the vice minister about his assumption of Kira but Flay beat him to it.

"Daddy he saved my life if he hadn't picked up the life boat that I was in I'd be dead by now!" she exclaimed not yet mentioning the other times that Kira had saved her.

Her father looked stunned once she was finished talking and didn't seem to be able to utter a response _'A coordinator saved my daughter's life'_ he thought in disbelief but quickly began to regain control over himself.

The Vice Minister was about to speak up again but Koopman cut him off. Apparently he had assumed that the Vice Minister was going to make another bigoted comment about the Coordinator that they had aboard their ship "I'm sorry but I feel that I must apologize for my guest's behavior however I too share some of his suspicions. Are you sure that the boy can be trusted?" he asked politely.

Raphael rolled his eyes while he groaned in exasperation wondering if these two idiots could put their prejudice's behind them for just two seconds and actually try and think rationally for a moment. Murrue and captain Hackett were going to come to Kira's defense but they were cut off by Raphael who had just then stepped in and gave the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs a glare that was laced with thinly veiled contempt of the man's bigotry towards those he knew almost nothing about.

"If mister Yamato was a spy he's doing a very, very piss poor job at it. He had numerous opportunities to betray us and hand over the prototype to ZAFT but instead he has saved the lives of everyone on this ship several times over so could you two morons please put your idiotic prejudices behind you for now and think like rational men?" he demanded.

The captain of the Montgomery looked as though he was about to respond however static quickly overcame both the audio and the visual on the main communications monitor.

"What's happening?" demanded Natarle as she turned to Mir who was working the communications console. Responding to the demand that the ensign gave she began to hurriedly type things onto the console he was assigned to trying to isolate the problem. After a few seconds of work the tech student managed to find it "It's N-Jammer interference…it's ZAFT!" she exclaimed before Natarle sounded a combat alert siren.

* * *

><p>-Archangel hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>Once he heard the alert siren go off Kira rushed to the hanger already suited up for combat "Kira we've got to move now commander Le Creuset has finally tracked us down again come on!" ordered Nathan who was ahead of him and was getting into the Lucifer. Kira all but ran into the Strike's cockpit and began the start up sequence. Before he could get it onto the launch ramp however the communications unit turned on and Kira saw Flay's worried face where Mir's should have been.<p>

The very moment that alert sounded Flay got over to the communications terminal that Mir was operating and opened up communications with the Strike.

"Flay are you doing alright?" he asked concerned "Please Kira, my father is on the Montgomery please just promise me you'll try to keep him safe!" she begged. Kira looked a little nervous at first but nodded "I promise I'll do anything I can to protect your dad" he said and that seemed to calm the red haired girl down a little bit "Thank you Kira" she said with absolute sincerity in her voice.

"Kid get your skinny ass on the catapult we have to launch now!" ordered Cross. Kira quickly did as the commander ordered and got the Strike with the Aile pack onto the linear catapult "Strike launching!" he said before the mobile suit was all but thrown out into void of space. The second he was out there he saw several Moebius mobile armor units fruitlessly trying to fight off several GINNs and the Aegis.

"This is Mir, Sky Eye reports that there are about nine ZAFT GINNs armed with heavy weapons plus the Aegis." said Mir into the communications system. _'Well at least they don't have all of the prototypes out there'_ thought Cross as he piloted the White Knight over to the catapult.

"Mir is lieutenant La Flaga going to be helping us in this fight?" Kira asked "Yes he should be out soon"

Cross was the first one onto the catapult. The magnetic launcher threw the White knight forward and out into the void. Almost immediately he could see that the Atlantic Federation forces were already having a hard time fighting back. Most of the mobile armors that they had sent out were pretty much destroyed and the ships themselves looked like they were taking heavy damage. Cross then checked his radar and saw that Kira and the other space worthy members of the Black Skulls had already launched and were ready to aid the Earth Forces however they could.

"All allied forces you have weapons free, repeat weapons free, eliminate as many enemy targets as you come across them!" ordered Cross as he flew towards one of the nearby GINNs.

Cross saw one GINN aiming a bazooka at one of the ships, Cross quickly took aim and fired with his machine gun. Hundreds of armor piercing 110mm rounds tore into the ZAFT mobile suit and out the other side. One of the hundreds of bullets hit the machine's main reactor and the GINN went up in an explosion.

"Sky Eye scratch one GINN" said Cross "Affirmative but I'm still reading several more enemy mobile suit signatures in the area and the Zeus is about to launch three squadrons of Mobile Armor units to provide fire support"

When Sky Eye finished his sentence Cross went wide eyed at the support officer if the Earth Alliance's mobile armors couldn't make a dent what hope did theirs have against the ZAFT forces that they were fighting "Has Hackett finally lost his mind? They won't last more than ten minutes against the enemy!" he shouted in disbelief that Hackett would make such a foolish move in combat. If they were fighting enemy mobile armors that could very well be a good strategy but under these circumstances it was like sending infantry armed with small arms weapons up against tanks.

"It can't be helped Cross! We've already begun to take even more damage to our hull not to mention that most if not all of our flak turrets are out of commission until they can be repaired or replaced and our main gun can't be fired period so right now we need as much air support as we can get!" Sky Eye explained to him almost angrily.

The Zeus came with five wings of mobile armors that was the Eclipse class mobile armor. The Eclipse was an Orb model mobile armor it had a sleek looking hull that mounted two chin mounted fifty caliber high velocity machine guns as well as six high explosive missiles that were commonly used by the Atlantic Federation, it didn't' have much of an armament but it was capable of combat on both earth and in space it was one of the most versatile Mobile Armor's that were available.

"This is Sigma team we'll moving in to provide close air support for Black Squadron, Kappa and Lambda teams you stay with the Zeus and make sure that she stays safe" said Sigma team's leader ordered. The two other mobile armor squadrons gave confirmations.

Athrun meanwhile targeted the Law and the Aegis transform into mobile armor mode and activated its Scylla energy cannon and fired. The weapon blew clean through the Law and clean out the other side of the nelson class destroyer. Several small explosions encompassed the Law's hull before it was blown to pieces.

Meanwhile the Montgomery wasn't fairing all that much better either, it had sustained massive internal and external damage to the engines and most of the point defense turrets that the ship was equipped with were completely destroyed along with its anti ship cannons. Kira had been trying to draw most of the enemies fire while attempting to try counterattack but so far they were mostly focused on the ship rather than the mobile suit that Kira was piloting.

Kira fired a volley of shots from his beam rifle at one of the GINNs that had gotten too close to the Montgomery each shot hit the machine destroying it completely. He then heard a beeping noise coming from the radar. He took a glance and saw that several mobile armors were heading towards the GINNs. Kira panicked and opened a communications link to the lead pilot of the group.

"Attention mobile armor pilots please fall back you're no match against those GINNs!" Kira begged but the pilots ignored him and instead opened fire with several anti mobile suit missiles. One of the GINNs was hit with three or four of the missiles blowing off the head and legs rendering the unit a derelict, but the two remaining GINN's counterattacked by opening fire with assault and beam rifles.

Three of the eight Moebius' were destroyed from the hail of beam and assault rifle fire. Those that remained were still being fired upon but they managed to evade the gunfire and got close enough to open fire with their own machine guns which failed to do much damage to the GINN's armor.

However the machine gun rounds did manage to hit the ocular sensor that was mounted on the head of one of the units rendering it blind "Kira light up those GINNs now!" ordered Sigma leader. Seconds later the Black Skull mobile armors were about to turn around and make another pass but they were quickly gunned down by the two GINNs.

Kira watched in horror as the entire mobile armor squadron die a near pointless death but he did as he was told and activated his beam saber and sliced the GINN vertically in half. The other GINN turned its attention to Kira and opened fire with its machine gun, the bullets uselessly bounced off the Strike's PS armor while the machine took aim with its beam rifle and fired it several times at the GINN's torso area. Each shot hit with pinpoint accuracy and all that was left of the GINN's upper torso were several enormous holes.

The pilot of the strike then turned his attention to the Montgomery it looked heavily damaged, there were several hull breaches and most of the defensive weapons were completely gone. He began to head back to try and lend the ship some support but the Vesalius had opened fire with it's main guns, the second that the energy rounds from the Vesalius hit the Montgomery several explosions rocked its hull before it was completely destroyed.

Kira just looked a the now completely obliterated hull of the Montgomery, he failed in his promise to a girl that he had been having a crush on for the last two and a half years.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Flay was watching the battle and was getting more worried about her father the longer that the fight continued. The last of the mobile armors that the three ships had were completely destroyed and the Montgomery had taken heavy damage.<p>

_'No, please don't die, dad please'_ she begged as tears of worry began to stream down her face. Flay's breathing came in short almost audible gasps, she was terrified. When the Montgomery got hit by weapons fire from the Vesalius she screamed in shock and horror at the sight of her father dying, her tear drenched eyes rolled back and her eyes closed and she fell forward down to the floor unconscious.

Sai leapt off of the sensor equipment that he was using and grabbed Flay as she fell, the girl's tears were still streaming down her eyes. Ensign Badgiruel's eyes narrowed she knew that what had to be done and although it was rather obvious captain Ramius would never even come close to approving of her next action Natarle felt that she had no choice in the matter. Ensign Badgiruel quickly shoved Mir off of the communications console and opened up communications over an open channel.

"Attention ZAFT forces this is the Archangel, we have Lacus Clyne aboard this ship we found her in an escape pod in the debris belt so we saved her as a humanitarian gesture but if you continue to attack us we will be forced to take extreme measures" she said bracing herself for the crew's reaction which wouldn't be pretty especially when the Black Skulls found out about it.

* * *

><p>-Space present-<p>

* * *

><p>The moment that Natarle had finished giving out the threat Nathan was for lack of better terms enraged. This was exactly why the Black Skulls rarely accepted any kind of a contract from any of the Earth Alliance's militaries. Although this policy may seem rather odd since they were technically a mercenary unit they still had principles and a sense of honor and one of those was that under absolutely no circumstances was a civilian to be intentionally harmed in any way physically or emotionally.<p>

Because of this the Black Skulls ceased to accept any kind of job offer from the Atlantic Federation or any of its allies after the Bloody Valentines tragedy and focused on mostly doing work for both Orb and ZAFT until the attack on Heliopolis.

Apparently Nathan wasn't the only one disgusted with this events Athrun was as well. The blue haired ZAFT pilot spoke into the Aegis' communicator with an angered voice that was laced with contempt for his former friend's choices thus far.

"Well Kira do you feel justified now? fighting alongside these cowards?" he demanded before he and the handful of remaining GINNs that joined the battle, reluctantly headed back to the Vesalius.

To be continued.


	8. Return

Armored Seed

Chapter 8

Exchange

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>Once Nathan had made it back onboard the Archangel he angrily tore off his helmet and exited his AC. Nathan Fletcher's thoughts held nothing but complete and utter contempt and disgust towards a certain black haired ensign but as much as he would love to go and beat the living shit out of her, he was still under orders to assist this ship until they reached their allies.<p>

However he did not intend for Lacus to remain on this ship for much longer and judging from how Kira looked as well he didn't intend on letting her stay on board either, perhaps Nathan could get the to the Vesalius.

Nathan had no intention of allowing Lacus to become an Earth Forces bargaining chip in their war. But he was also concerned about that Flay, she had just watched her father die in front of her and he was hoping that the girl wouldn't go back to her old prejudices and blame Kira.

Although he had never seen the girl give support for the Blue Cosmos himself he had heard several rumors that she used to be a small time supporter of that terrorist group. But first things first he had to go and check up on Lacus to make sure that she wasn't injured in any way when ensign Badgiruel used her as leverage against ZAFT.

It only took him a few minutes at the most to reach where she was staying after all it was near where he was sleeping as well. He opened the door and he saw Lacus. She didn't look like the person that they had met in the life pod she was somewhat saddened and for some reason this bothered him more than it should have.

"Lacus are you alright?" Nathan asked with a hint of concern in his voice. She then told him about how she had wandered out of her room a little while ago and ended up on the bridge during the battle. She saw how Flay had reacted when her father's ship was destroyed and she was then used as leverage by ensign Badgiruel to stop the battle.

She explained that it wasn't the fact that she was used as a hostage/bargaining tool it was that someone that she had met only a few hours earlier who had seemed like a nice person just lost her father "I hate this war" she said.

Nathan completely agreed with her on that one if it hadn't started then he'd still be with Mira back on Junius Seven and thousands of other innocent people wouldn't have lost their lives in the crossfire between the two sides "Why can't people just live together in peace for once?" she asked almost to herself, the pink haired singer seemed to be on the verge of tears

"I guess that sometimes people hate each because they don't understand each other and in their hatred they just find new reasons to hate each other the more time goes on. Eventually they might understand the reasons that the other has for fighting back but they'll still hate the enemy because of the fact that they're just a little bit different in some way or for what they had done to them while they were fighting that's how this war began and it'll never truly end until both sides finally realize that killing over the fact that the other person may or may not have different type of genes is madness" he stated almost philosophically.

Lacus' mood brightened at that, it would seem that the two of them had quite a bit in common after all "You're a very wise man Nathan" she said "Thank you Lacus" he said politely but he still had the same stoic expression on his face before the Haro next to her chirped "Wise guy, wise guy" while it bounced up and down.

"To be honest when I first saw you I thought that you were someone who just fought simply for the sake of fighting" she said to which Nathan let out a small sigh "I seem to have been getting that a lot recently" he said almost irritably.

* * *

><p>-Zeus bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Hackett looked over his subordinates and said "Ensign Agar give me a damage report" he ordered while Agar typed several seemingly random sequences into his console. The damage reports came up and Agar sighed.<p>

"Most of our flak turrets and other defensive weaponry are out of comission and the engines are a complete wreck. The hanger is still intact and so are the other backup armored cores that we have stored there but I recommend that we get as much stuff off of this ship ASAP sir the reactor is beginning to melt down and we have a little over two hours to get off this thing" said the Ensign

The captain sighed exasperatedly he knew that his ship was damaged but he didn't think that it was this bad "Is there any possible way that we could avert it?" he asked but the ensign shook his head "Unless we get some new internal cooling units in the next two hours, this ship's reactor will inevitably go critical" the ensign explained

Hackett truly hated to abandon the Zeus but they had little choice "Open a channel to the Archangel" he ordered.

The communications officer then did as requested and a picture of the Archangel's bridge came up on screen showing Murrue's face "Captain Ramius this is captain Hackett we have a very serious situation on our hands" he said. Murrue almost pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, how could this possibly get any worse.

"What do you need captain?" Murrue asked

"It seems that our ship's main reactor will overload within the hour I would appreciate it if my men could take refuge on board your ship for the time being" he said. Natarle looked like she was about to protest but Murrue cut her off "Very well you can come aboard whenever you're ready" she said before the captain of the independent vessel signed off

Natarle turned to her commanding officer and was stunned "Ma'am you seriously can't be allowing mercenaries onto a Federation warship?"

"Well you heard them their ship's reactor is going critical in about an hour and unless they get off that ship ASAP. Besides they've done nothing but help us since Heliopolis I think that they can be trusted ensign" said Mu but Natarle looked like she was still going to argue with Murrue's decision but before a word could make it out of her mouth she was cut off by the captain.

"I'm allowing them onboard and that will be all ensign" she said in a tone that suggested that continuing to argue would be a very bad idea for the ensign's military career.

* * *

><p>-Archangel medical bay-<p>

* * *

><p>The first place that Kira went to after the battle was the med bay after he learned that was where Flay was located. Apparently she had passed out after she saw the ship that her father was on turn into space debris. When he walked into the room he saw the rest of his friends from Heliopolis near the hospital bed where Flay was sleeping "How is she?" he asked sadly.<p>

The doctor that was in charge of the med bay looked at Kira and said "She doesn't have any physical injuries but emotionally is another story" the doctor explained.

"The death of a family member can be a very traumatic experience. For now I recommend that she gets as much support as she can get when she wakes up she'll probably be an emotional wreck to say the least" said the man. Kira went up to Flay who was still asleep and sat down on a nearby chair and decided to wait until she woke up and when she did he prayed to god that she'd forgive him for failing to keep his promise.

It felt like an eternity while everyone sat there waiting for Flay to wake up even though it was really just ten or fifteen minutes. Eventually the red haired girl's eyes stirred and then opened slowly "Welcome back to the land of the living Flay" said Tolle.

Flay slowly got up and looked around and saw that everyone from Heliopolis was there looking over her waiting to make sure she was alright. Suddenly she remembered what had happened, her father's ship blew up while she just watched. Flay burst into tears "Why did he have to die?" she sobbed weakly. Kira had a depressed look on his face.

"I'm sorry Flay I just-" Kira started but was cut off when Flay lunged at him and hugged him vigorously much to everyone's surprise and amazement.

"You're not the reason he's dead Kira, it's not your fault" Flay assured him tears still streaming down her face. This was surprising to say the least. Most of the people there half expected Flay to return to her old prejudices when her father was killed by ZAFT but they were pleasantly surprised that this wasn't going to be the case. The two continued to embraced much to Sai's jealousy.

Kuzzey however was the only one who voiced his thoughts "To be honest Flay I think we all thought that you'd go back to you're old prejudices" he said

Flay turned her head and glared at him angry that the boy would even try to suggest something like that "He didn't fire the shot that killed my dad and I guess I've finally realized that Coordinators aren't bad people" she admitted before she returned to hugging a still stunned Kira.

* * *

><p>-Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>It only took Nathan a few minutes to get the normal suit that were situated around the crew quarters before he got back to the room he was given and he found Lacus inside laying on the bed that was next to his. He tossed her a suit which she fumbled trying to catch.<p>

"Put that on we'releaving" Nathan ordered. Lacus looked up at Nathan slightly confused "What do you mean?" she asked tilting her head while Mr. Pink just continued to flap around randomly.

"I'm getting you off of this ship and back to your boyfriend" he explained. Lacus suddenly looked a little happier than she was earlier but then she adopted a concerned look on her face "Are you sure won't your superiors be angry with you?" she asked worried for Nathan's safety.

He almost chuckled "I'm not with the Atlantic Federation or the Earth Forces in their eyes I'm a mercenary and since I'm currently not under their employ I can do whatever I damn well please and as for you, you're listed as a guest on this ship so you can leave whenever it is you want and I suggest you do so shortly before someone in the eighth fleet decides to make you a prisoner of war" he explained practically sounding like some lawyer that was giving a defense of his client in some court case.

Once Nathan had given the girl suit he then began to walk out of the room and the pink haired suddenly asked "Wait where are you going?" a little confused while the Raven operator turned his head slightly so that he could look her straight in the eye.

"It's improper and incredibly rude to be in the same room with a woman while she's changing" he explained before Lacus blushed slightly, he was such a gentleman.

After Lacus had finished putting on the suit she heard arguing coming from outside "Just what the hell are you doing here Kira?" demanded Nathan

"I'm getting Lacus off of this ship" the young Coordinator explained before Nathan scoffed "If you do that you'll get court-martialed and don't think that just because you can pilot the Strike means that you won't be put under military arrest and more than likely executed for treason"

Lacus walked slowly towards the door and heard Kira saying that he was willing to risk that. The pink haired pop star then heard a loud thud and Nathan saying that he was sorry. Lacus walked out and saw that Kira was passed out on the floor with a rather nasty bruise on the side of his head.

"Oh my god what did you do?" she demanded going over and checking Kira to make sure he was alright. Sure enough he was fine, just knocked out.

"Don't worry I just knocked him out he should be up in less than an hour from now with a headache but other than that he should be fine. And since you're wondering why I did that, I just didn't want him to risk getting court-martialed and possibly executed after he got back from taking you back to the ZAFT ship. So I made sure to hit him hard enough to knock him out but not hard enough to cause a concussion" he said.

However Nathan's explanation for his actions didn't really cause Lacus any relief "Still you can't just go around whacking people in the head" she hissed, angry that a new friend of hers who also happened to be a childhood friend of her fiancé was just now injured.

"I didn't want him to get killed in a possible ambush or summary execution better I risk getting killed than him" he said causing Lacus to stop glaring at him as harshly but she still didn't like the fact that he had just punched someone in the head hard enough for them to be knocked out.

"Now come one we have to get to the hanger!" Nathan ordered gently taking Lacus by her hand who was slightly conflicted at what just happened. On one hand Nathan had just hurt her new friend but on the other he had prevented him from walking not only into a possible ambush but also a court-martial that could end in an execution but she doubted that the latter would happen the captain of the ship seemed like a good person.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Murrue looked over some of the latest reports, all of the personnel from the Zeus had just made it onboard the Archangel and by the newer and more accurate estimations that the captain of the mercenary ship had given her it was going to explode in another hour and a half. After the ship had been destroyed it was assumed that the remains of the ship would join the debris belt or fall through the atmosphere and either burn up or fall into the ocean.<p>

All in all bringing the mercenaries on board turned out to be a good idea than Murrue had initially thought. The Black Skull crew were eager to assist in whatever function that they could and so far they were doing a great job of it.

One of the bridge staff a young man by the name of Jack Polanski was looking at one of his monitors and he raised an eyebrow "Uh ensign Badgiruel is the Lucifer supposed to be launching now?" he asked.

The ensign quickly turned and looked at her subordinate her eyes slightly narrowed "No it's not lock down the hatch now!" Polanski typed several buttons on his console but he let out a sigh in frustration "It's too late ensign he's already launched"

Natarle almost growled what the hell did that Raven think he was doing "Send lieutenant La Flaga and Kira Yamato after him now!" she ordered.

* * *

><p>-Space-<p>

* * *

><p>It was calm cold and quiet in space all the time. However it was the quiet that had always made Nathan on edge but he normally kept it hidden under a stoic mask.<p>

Calm cold and quiet usually meant that a surprise attack was maybe being set up somewhere but he kept his AC going at a slow and steady pace hoping that the ZAFT ship wouldn't immediately identify him as a hostile. As he continued to travel through space the Zaft ship known as the Vesalius came up on his radar unit. Taking his eyes off of the radar/thermal detection screen for a moment he looked at the main monitor and saw the white sillhouette of the Vesalius slowly drift into view.

Once he was sure he was within communications distance Nathan turned on the communications system and spoke "Attention ZAFT ship this is the armored core Lucifer broadcasting on an open channel I have Lacus Clyne on board this unit and I am willing to release her into your custody" he said but there was no answer from the Vesalius but since Rau Le Creuset was aboard he would either accept the offer or just blow him into space dust

"I repeat ZAFT ship I have Lacus Clyne aboard and I am willing to release her into your custody please respond" he said with a little more urgency in his voice hoping that they would believe that he was telling them the truth and wouldn't just destroy his armored core with him and Lacus inside.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius bridge a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>The thermal detection unit operator was sipping some coffee as he looked over his console with a very bored expression on his face waiting for some unidentified contact to appear on radar. This was by far probably the most boring part of his job on the Vesalius. Sure the battles that they got into were pretty damn exciting for him but the lulls in between combat andhsi shift change had the guy looking an almost always blank screen all day long which was so boring in fact that it made him feel as though time had slowed down.<p>

As he continued to watch the radar a blip appeared on the screen. The officer yawned and gingerly rubbed his eyes thinking to himself that he must be so bored that he imagined something to so that he'd be able to give himself something to do before he opened his eyes back up and looked at the console. Sure enough the unidentified contact was still there. In fact it was slowly making its way towards the Vesalius. The officer immediately turned back to Rau Le Creuset with a look of urgency on his face

"Um commander it appears that I've got some kind of an unidentified contact" he said. Rau and Athrun turned to the sensor operator "Is it the Legged ship?" Le Creuset asked thinking that the Archangel might be going on the offensive while they were still repairing some of their systems after their last battle "No sir it's just one and it's roughly the same size as a mobile suit" Le Creuset raised an eyebrow at this he certainly hadn'texpecting something like this from them.

"Commander Le Creuset I'm picking up a transmission from the unknown unit I'm putting it on speakers" said the communications officer who was sitting on his station "I repeat this is the Lucifer broadcasting on an open channel I have Lacus Clyne on board and I am prepared to release her into your custody. Please respond"

Rau reached over and pushed a button on the communications console "This is commander Rau Le Creuset of the Vesalius we hear you Lucifer we're on our way now to-" Rau started but he was interrupted by the enemy pilot "Negative I want the Athrun and Athrun only to pick up miss Clyne in the Aegis, unarmed and alone" Rau was about to make a rebuttal to that kind of a request when he heard the said boy speak up from behind him.

"Sir please let me go out there I can handle it" said Athrun almost begging his commanding officer. Le Creuset thought about it for a moment. It would be easy to destroy a single armored core and besides they could use this chance to commence a surprise attack on the Archangel after they had secured Lacus Clyne.

"Very well Athrun" he said simply and Athrun raced to the hanger eager to get Lacus away from what he believed to be a bloodthirsty mercenary.

* * *

><p>-Space-<p>

* * *

><p>Lacus looked over at Nathan who was silently awaiting Athrun to appear "I never asked you this mister Fletcher but why are you doing this?" she asked. Nathan turned to look at her a neutral expression on his face but his red eyes betrayed his real feelings, concern for her safety.<p>

"Because I don't like watching good people suffer needlessly" he explained simply. A beeping came over Nathan's radar and he checked it over "Looks like your boyfriend has arrived" Nathan said as his main view screen zoomed in on the approaching mobile suit.

Athrun's face then came over the com unit "This is Athrun Zala before we start the exchange I want confirmation that Lacus is on board that Armored Core" he said calmly demanding to see his fiancé before he did anything. Without missing a beat Lacus leaned in front of the communications unit and said "Hi Athrun it's good to see you again" while waving happily.

Athrun was astonished he didn't think that the mercenary would live up to his word. He then opened up communications with the Vesalius "This is Athrun I have confirmation that Lacus Clyne is aboard that AC" he said "Good proceed with the exchange" said Le Creuset. So far his plan was working perfectly now all he had to do was wait just a few more minutes.

The Lucifer slowly got closer to the GINN that Athrun was piloting making no sudden movements or threatening gestures of any kind. Eventually the Lucifer got close enough so that Lacus could easily get onto the other machine. The cockpit of the Lucifer depressurized and opened up allowing Lacus to get onto Athrun's Aegis.

"Thank you for everything Nathan" whispered Lacus giving him a warm smile before she jumped off of the Lucifer and into the Aegis' cockpit "Now that we're done here I'm heading back to the Archangel, good day" Nathan said before he noticed the Vesalius launching its remaining GINNs while it steadily began to get closer to his position and aim its weapons directly at him.

"I knew this would happen it's a double cross" he said to himself before he activated his energy blade and was about to attack the GINN closest to him. The only weapon he had with him was the energy blade attached to his machine's left wrist while the Vesalius had several remaining GINNs from the previous battle that were still in peak condition and had several ranged weapons and he didn't even want to think about the weapons that the Vesalius was carrying.

"Who're the cowards now Athrun? I come here to deliver your girlfriend back to you and you bastards ambush me? Well no matter if I'm going to die I'm going to die fighting!" he roared as he sped towards the GINN that was closest to him activating his energy blade as he went and slashed it in half while the Lucifer used its left arm to acquire the machinegun that it was using before it was destroyed. He then spotted two new contacts on the radar it was the Strike and the Moebius Zero.

"About damn time you guys showed up!" said Nathan wile he opened fire on Le Creuset's white painted CGUE that had just launched. The shots completely missed the CGUE because of its superior maneuverability. Commander LE Creuset smirked, the Strike was finally here.

Before the Strike or the Moebius could open fire on the enemy the voice of a certain singer came over the communications channels "Rau Le Creuset cease your attack immediately!" Lacus demanded and Rau's response indicated that he was somewhat peeved at Lacus' interference.

"Now miss Clyne-" he started but was cut off by the pink haired pop star "Commander do you really intend on starting a battle _here _with a memorial representative such as myself present?" she demanded angrily.

The commander was about to try and argue but was interrupted again by Lacus "You will cease your attack now!" she ordered to which Le Creuset sighed resignedly "Very well then" he said and the ZAFT mobile suits headed back to the Vesalius while the Strike, Lucifer and Moebius flew back to their own ship.

The second that Athrun got eyes on the Strike leaving he opened up communications "Kira this is the last chance I'm giving you please come back to the Vesalius" he said trying to remain calm but he was slightly nervous "I'm sorry but I can't do that Athrun" said Kira almost sadly.

Athrun gripped his controls so hard that his knuckles turned white he let out a bated breath "Alright then Kira" he said reluctantly "The next time we meet I will have to shoot you down". Lacus looked horrified at her fiancé's declaration he didn't seem to be the same person she knew when she was a child.

Kira looked saddened but he quickly tried to harden himself "Same to you Athrun" he said before he cut off communications. It only took the three of them a few minutes to get back to the Archangel where Nathan would be court marshaled.

* * *

><p>-Captain's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Despite commander Cross' and the rest of Black team's protests captain Hackett had allowed the hearing. But truth be told the only reason that the old British captain had allowed it because Nathan did disobey several direct orders from the captian that had allowed them to stay on their ship for a while but everyone, Hackett included believed that Nathan would put in his silver tongue to good use and easily convince Ramius that he was innocent of any kind of wrongdoing.<p>

Nathan looked almost bored as he sat there waiting for Murrue Ramius to announce the charges.

"Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher you are brought here on charges of theft of Atlantic Federation property and Aiding and Abetting the escape of a POW" said Ramius before looking directly at Mu "Lieutenant Mu La Flaga will be your defense council" she explained. Mu was abou to speak up when Nathan beat him to the punch.

"I need no defense council here ma'am I'd prefer to represent myself" he said calmly and Mu La Flaga shrugged "Okay kiddo your call" he said taking a seat nearby wanting to see what would happen in this farce of a military trial.

"Now as for the charges of theft of Atlantic Federation property I never stole anything, the Lucifer is my personal property I purchased the parts to create the machine and as such it belongs to me and as for the aiding and abetting the escape of a prisoner of war that charge is baseless because Ms. Clyne was slated in the ship manifest as simply a guest you can't just suddenly turn around and say that she's a POW." before his head turned to look directly at ensign Badgiruel "If anyone should be on trial here captain I'd say that it's _her_" he said glaring daggers at the ensign.

"And might I ask why that would be?" Natarle demanded standing up off of her seat.

"Although I admit that I don't' know too much about Atlantic Federation military doctrine I do know that taking hostages is completely forbidden" Nathan answered almost angrily. When Nathanhad found out that she had used a civilian as a hostage and not only that but one that had been all but put under his protection, Nathan had to restrain himself from shooting the woman dead once he got back on the ship. The tension in the air rose as the two soldiers continued to argue.

Natarle countered his statement of the crime of hostage taking by elaborating "Under normal circumstances yes but it is allowed under extraordinary conditions" this caused Nathan's eyes to narrow angrily at her and he scoffed in contempt.

"It never ceases to amaze me at the amount of evil and hypocrisy that the Atlantic Federation has built up over the years" he spat as he continued to narrow his eyes Natarle still giving her an angry steel gaze.

"By the way Ensign, if I ever catch you doing something that morally repugnant again I'll promise that i'll personally put a bullet into your head" he promised in a tone that made almost everyone in the room flinch.

"Well as for the charges I'm dropping them although the only criminal thing you did was an unauthorized launch of your Armored Core" Murrue said smiling a little trying to break the tension in the room "Which doesn't warrant that much of a punishment"

"So basically she's going to let you off with a warning, don't launch again without our permission first" Mu joked trying to lighten the mood a little. Nathan turned to him and said "Understood" before he turned around and walked out. Once he walked out he saw Kira and the others waiting for him. He the approached Kira while the latter's friends glared at him especially Flay who was standing close by Kira.

"I'm sorry I had to knock you out but I hope that you understand that I had little choice. I didn't want to put you in the situation that I was just in and since you most likely wouldn't be willing to put me in that position either. I felt that my only choice was to knock you out and I apologize that I had to resort to such drastic measures" he apologized but before Kira could respond everyone heard the sound of rapid pacing footsteps coming down the corridor.

Everyone saw a fuming woman with long dark brown hair and tanned skin who was being followed by the rest of Nathan's team

"Oh, no" muttered Nathan. The woman walked right up to him and backhanded him across the face much to everyone's shock "You dimwitted lunatic!" she roared before she hoisted him up by the collar of his shirt

"Hi Carmen" Nathan sighed exasperatedly really not wanting to deal with that woman's antics at the moment "Oh don't you "Hi" me bucko first you knock out your friend and then you throw yourself at the enemy _unarmed_ and _ALONE_!" she ranted before she started to drag him off somewhere while he rolled his eyes at the woman's antics. Carmen didn't get about two feet before Sai made a very poor choice to speak up.

"Um, where exactly are you taking him?" he asked while the rest of Nathan's team looked at the boy as though he was crazy while Carmen turned around and gave the poor boy a look that promised certain death if he was going to say anything else.

"I'm taking this little moron somewhere where I can knock a little bit of sense into him!" she roared causing everyone in front of her to take a few steps back in fear. She then resumed her path of destruction while everyone nearby stayed clear out of the woman's way

Adam leaned and whispered in Sai's ear "Word to the wise kid, never interrupt Carmen when she's in her crazy mode" he suggested "What's going to happen to him?" Mir asked somewhat concerned for Nathan's safety while Drake just chuckled.

"Once he's in the medical bay Carmen over there is going to go chew him out for about a couple of hours before she lets him go until something like this happens again"

"This has happened before?" Flay asked with a somewhat surprised look on her face which caused Adam to let out a small chuckle "Oh you have absolutely no idea kid, almost every time that that poor bastard gets injured or does something reckless in combat like what had just happened she goes nuts, but I got to be totally honest with you though, I think she's just playing the surrogate big sister to him." he explained.

"So he'll survive this?" asked Kuzzey before Nathan's team laughed for a few moments before Cross adopted a very serious expression "Well yeah I mean he's been through much worse than just being chewed out by his adoptive big sister" he explained while everyone but Kira wondered just what it was the man was talking about.

To be continued


	9. A Choice

Armored Seed

chapter 9

A Choice

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the Black Skulls

* * *

><p>-Gamow-<p>

* * *

><p>Nichol, Dearka, Yzak and the Gamow's captain were looking over the tactical map that was on the ship's bridge. Apparently the Archangel was now heading straight for the Earth Forces eighth fleet which would escort them until they made it through the Earth's atmosphere and presumably to the Atlantic Federations headquarters JOSH-A in Alaska.<p>

"So the Archangel is preparing to rendezvous with the eighth fleet then?" asked Yzak the captain nodded in response "That's correct, and although we can definately intercept them we'll only have a maximum of about ten minutes before the eighth fleet reaches their location" said the captain. Nichol was thinking that making an immediate attack would be too risky, the enemy had at least three space capable armored cores with them plus the Strike and Moebius Zero a direct attack without the support of the Vesalius would be near suicide.

The green haired pilot was broken out of his thoughts when Dearka chuckled "Only ten minutes?" the blond pilot asked "Or a full ten minutes? I say that we take the opening that they gave us when they handed over miss Clyne" he said with a smug grin on his face.

Standing next to Dearka was Yzak who of course was more than eager than Dearka was for the chance to destroy the "Legged ship" quickly agreed with the blond haired boy but Nichol however wasn't sharing the same amount of certainty that the other two were having "Just remember that they still have that Raven company looking after them" said Nichol.

Yzak glared at the green haired boy "Yeah but I just saw a report that their ship the Zeus suffered a core meltdown meaning that it was destroyed, that means that the Archangel doesn't even have a single support ship which means we have the advantage over them. So right now I suggest that the cowards keep their mouths shut! Besides if we have a window of opportunity I say that we take it" Yzak snarled more than eager for an opportunity for battle.

Ever since Nichol had joined the Le Creuset team he noticed almost immediately that Yzak was an arrogant hothead even more so than Dearka was because at least he knew how to keep his temper in check. Although Yzak was a hothead and incredibly arrogant at least Yzak was more than able to back that arrogance up most of the time and did prove to be a very competent mobile suit pilot but Nichol always suspected that his arrogance and anger management issues would be his downfall someday.

"Besides a successful surprise attack isn't determined by the actual time span you should know this by now" said Dearka in an almost lecturing tone. Yzak then spoke.

"The Vesalius is going to hand Lacus over to the Karn team and then they're heading back to our position but we'll have already destroyed the Archangel and it's escorts by then" Nichol sighed, there would be no changing their minds about this so he agreed with them but he still felt like they were about to make a huge error in judgment by attacking the Archangel at this point in time but he supposed that they would have to try and take the risk.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius-<p>

* * *

><p>Athrun was wandering the halls of the Vesalius when he heard a mechanical voice yell "Haro, haro Athrun!" he turned and saw a pink ball bouncing around the corridor before it landed in the pilot's hand. Athrun looked at his creation for a second or two before he looked up and saw his fiancé coming towards him<p>

"Hi Athrun I guess that Mr. Pink was a bit overexcited since neither of us haven't seen you in such a long time" she said smiling. Athrun however sighed "Lacus you know that Haro doesn't have any kind of emotional programming. And although you're a guest here but the Vesalius is a warship so could you please try not wander off too much"

Lacus sighed having a feeling that her fiancé would say something like that "It seems that almost everywhere I go I'm being told that" Athrun looked at her strangely she didn't act like someone who had just gotten out of a hostage situation and that puzzled him.

The pink haired singer immidiatley seemed to have noticed this and asked "Athrun what's wrong?" tilting her head a little while she stared at him for a second. Her fiancé let out a bated breath "I was just wondering how you were doing I mean you were just in a hostage situation and you were forced to go through so much"

The pink haired singer just let out a small giggle, Athrun could be so overprotective sometimes "Well actually they were rather polite in fact the person that I had to share a room while I was on that ship was a man named Nathan Fletcher and he was very-" she was cut off by Athrun who's eyes immediately widened and he then took a closer look at his wife to be, to try and make sure that she hadn't been injured in any way.

Lacus however had been completely unaware of Nathan's near ruthless reputation on the battlefield and was somewhat confused by the way Athrun was acting "Um, Athrun what are you doing?" she asked with a puzzled expression on her face. Athrun looked up at her and appeared to be very worried about her.

"He didn't hurt you did he?" he asked almost panicking. Lacus looked at her fiancé with a confused expression "No, not at all he was very polite and compassionate" she explained before Athrun looked even more shocked than he was earlier before he adopted a more neutral facial expression as he tried to process this new information.

"I also got to meet Kira he was also very kind to me as well". Lacus had hoped that changing the subject to that of Kira would help lighten the mood a bit more but unfortunately it had the exact opposite effect on him.

Athrun gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in anger at Lacus' mention of his name "Kira's nothing but a naïve fool, his "Friends" are just using him so that he can pilot the Strike and fight for the Earth Forces". Lacus began to try and properly explain what had happened on the ship but he pulled away from her and headed for the door. Lacus looked sadly at Athrun who was almost out the door this wasn't the man she had known for the past several years. "When I see at you now it's like you're a completely different person"

Athrun then turned and looked at his fiancé witha a scowl "Well it's not like I can just go to war with a smile on my face" he said pointing at his head angrily before he left Lacus alone in the guest room to her own thoughts.

the pink haired singer could understand why it was Athrun was so upset and she wanted to help him but right now since it appeared to be that he would want to be alone for a while and Lacus decided that would be best for now. The pink haired singer then turned her thoughts to that of the Raven she had met and what he had told her while she was on the Archangel

"_We both had a dream, that one day everyone would live in a world without war, a world in which Coordinators and Naturals could put their differences aside and live together in peace but in the end, this war was the thing that destroyed both of us" _

She began to wonder about just what it was that Nathan had meant when he had told her that. The singer then noticed that there was a computer in the room that she had been assigned to so she walked over to it and looked up Nathan Fletcher on the ship's database. Lacus had looked for a little more than an hour or so at many different news articles and even a few recently declassified intelligence reports about the boy that had sparked an interest in her while she was aboard the Archangel.

It seemed that before the Blood Valentines war began he was called the Angel of Mercy because of the types of missions that he went on. Mostly they were protecting refugee and relief convoys to various parts of the world to destroying Blue Cosmos terrorist cells. And in each of those missions he not once shot anyone who was trying to retreat (Except for the Blue Cosmos terrorists of course). Unfortunately after the Bloody Valentines tragedy everything about his actions had quickly changed.

It seemed that in almost every engagement that the Black Skulls had been in Nathan was leading the way killing any who stood in his path showing no mercy to anyone even if they surrendered and no matter how hard his AC was hit it seemed that there was seemingly no way to stop him. This earned him a new monicker, the Red Eyed Devil. After the last news article she read it hit her, she now knew exactly what it was Nathan had meant when he had told her that.

The war had destroyed Mira by killing her and it had destroyed Nathan by breaking both his spirit and his dream that there might be a peaceful world one day. It was saddening to say the least that someone with such good intentions for everyone in the world could be reduced to being just another soldier.

As she continued to look up more information on Nathan she silently hoped that if they met again one day that he'd have found some peace within himself.

* * *

><p>-Archangel-<p>

* * *

><p>Murrue was heading for the elevator on her way to her quarters for some much needed rest. Natarle however joined her and the captain of the ship somehow guessed that this probably had something to do with Kira.<p>

because they were getting close to the eighth fleet and once they met up with them Kira would no longer be allowed to pilot the Strike and since it was illegal for civilians to be serving on board a warship without first joining the military but of course Atlantic Federation combat doctrine stated that it was allowed only in the most extreme of circumstances.

"Ma'am I think that you should seriously reconsider letting Yamato leave the ship with the other civilians" she said while Murrue pushed the down button on the elevator "You know as well as I do that it's illegal for civilians to be serving on board a warship the last couple of weeks were an exception to that rule" said Murrue.

Natarle didn't waste any time responding to Murrue's question "He's the only one who can pilot the Strike as it is now until we can get a highly trained programmer to adjust its operating system" she explained. Murrue narrowed her eyes at the ensign and gave a tone that suggested that the ensign be very careful with where she was going with this "Just what exactly are you suggesting ensign? That we force him to enlist?"

Natarle looked down for a moment "If it comes to that then yes ma'am I believe we should, his parents are Naturals and they are more than likely on earth we could use them as leverage if we have to"

Murrue adopted a heavily disgusted look on her face. True the ensign had been proving to be a more than capable XO during combat these last few weeks but she was a little too willing to do whatever it took to win.

"I don't want a repeat of what happened to Lacus Clyne and just so you know ensign, I distinctly remember that Nathan Fletcher warned you that if you did anything that was similar to what you did with miss Clyne to anyone else here that he would kill you himself and I very much doubt that he's one to bluff" she warned.

The ensign remembered the conversation that she had during the court-martial. She also knew quite a bit about his reputation as the Red Eyed Devil. The boy was practically just a mere killing machine but there was more to Nathan than she had first suspected. And as much as she wanted to protest to her captain's decision she saw that Murrue's decision was final and the ensign wouldn't disobey a direct order from a superior officer.

Natarle then gave a sigh in resignation, she would do her duty even if she disagreed with the captain's decision "Very well captain I'll give him and his friends the discharge papers as soon as I can" she said finally.

Kira and his friends were hanging out in the cafeteria. As the day went on he noticed that the bruise on his head was healing rather nicely, when he had returned from bringing Nathan back from his little delivery he found that Flay was waiting for him asking if he was alright and she appeared to be very concerned for him. The two of them had begun to spend much more time together and Kira enjoyed every moment of it.

And it seemed that almost everyone on the ship but him had noticed that not only had he fallen head over heals for her but she was beginning to feel the same way towards him as well.

While they all sat down talking ensign Natarle Badgiruel came in with several slips of paper under her arm. She then passed them out to Kira and each of his friends. Kira looked up from the piece of paper he had been given and at the ensign "What are these?" he asked.

"Discharge papers, it's normally illegal for any civilian to be serving onboard an Atlantic Federation warship the last couple of weeks were an exception because of the situation that we were in" the ensign explained.

Kira was almost immediately reached to take the paper from the ensign's hands. The young Coordinator was far more than eager to get off that ship and resume a normal life in Orb. However before he could start signing he heard a tearing noise coming from where Flay was sitting "I'm staying" she said with a massive amount of determination laced in every word she said "Flay are you serious?" asked Mir a little surprised by that.

"I want to contribute something" she said "The last few weeks I've been nothing but a burden to everyone rather than helpful" she said looking down in shame. The next one was Sai who simply pushed aside his own discharge paper although everyone suspected that he just wanted to stay onboard the ship with his fiancé.

He was then followed by Mir and Tolle who did likewise. Kuzzey was the final one who reluctantly parted with the discharge paper. Apparently he was still a little more than reluctant than Kira was to stay on a warship in the middle of a combat zone.

Kira then felt himself torn. On one hand he wanted nothing more than to stop piloting the Strike and simply head back to Orb and live the rest of his life in peace but as Nathan had said several weeks earlier, this was his war now and he now had no other alternative but to fight it until its conclusion. But on the other the girl that he was developing more than just a simple crush for was staying on the ship and he wanted nothing more than to keep her safe.

Kira also handed his discharge paper back to Natarle and said that he'd stay on board for as long as he had to. The new recruits for the Atlantic Federation then sat down and began to chat amongst themselves for a while before Nathan sat down and joined them.

When they first met Nathan had been an almost cold and calculating person. Over the last couple of weeks however he had become more open than he previously was however he still was very stoic and quiet. The moment that the Raven operator had sat down on his seat Flay spoke/

"I heard from some of the crewmembers that the Skulls had brought aboard some more AC's onto the Archangel is this true?" Nathan nodded slowly as he was somewhat unsure as to where it was that Flay was going with this line of conversation "Do all of them have pilots?"

"The majority of our armored cores can't even operate in space until we do a bit of maintenance work on them and the parts that we need are back at our main base in Orb and all of those already have pilots. However our backup AC definitely doesn't have anyone to operate it but even if it did the Beta probably won't even be able to maneuver in zero gravity but it might be able to function a bit better if I was able to adjust the primary thrusting unit's output just a little more" he explained while he stroked his chin in thought.

Flay inhaled for a second trying to gather courage for what she was about to say before she stood up "Show me how to pilot it" almost everyone nearby was shocked that Flay would actually volunteer to pilot something like that and even more so that she would demand to be shown how to pilot it.

Nathan raised an eyebrow at her, out of all the things that the red haired girl could've said he certainly wasn't expecting this from someone her. For a while Nathan had been under the impression that she was just some spoiled rich girl who wouldn't do anything that would endanger herself but he was pleased to see that he was wrong about that.

"Y-you're kidding right?" asked Kuzzey who looked a little concerned while Sai stood up in shock looking at his fiancé with disbelief "Flay you can't be serious!" yelled Sai who looked at the red haired girl "Why should Kira be the only one of us to lay his life on the line by going out into combat I want to do something besides just sitting on the sidelines hoping that he'll come back alive!" she yelled back.

"You're my Fiancé and I don't want you getting killed!"

Flay then made a statement that seemed to shock Sai just as much as her earlier declaration did "Not anymore" she said in a calm yet firm voice but she then shouted "I'm breaking up with you!"

This caused Sai to fall backwards onto his ass "W-what?" he managed to get out while everyone else in the room watched the drama unfold "Flay you shouldn't risk getting yourself killed" Mir insisted

"Yeah we're already helping out around the ship, you shouldn't increase the odds of getting blown into space dust" Tolle agreed.

Kira was thinking along the same lines as Mir and Tolle. The young Coordinator knew that he wouldn't be able to bear it if the girl he'd been crushing on for the past year, was killed in front of him . Flay then turned to her friend and gave a small smile "I know" she said "But I'm already at risk of getting killed because I'm staying on this ship so what's the harm in learning how to fight?"

"Why is it that you all just keep assuming that I had already said yes to train her?" Nathan said in exasperation, while he sat down with his arms crossed in front of him. Flay looked almost pitifully at him and was about to say something but Nathan beat her to it "Before I agree to anything I need to lay down two simple rules. The second you step into that cockpit there will be no going back, _ever_, and when you are in that cockpit you have to follow commander Cross' orders and mine to the letter, understood?"

Flay thought about it for a few moments before she took in a bated breath "I understand" she said determinedly

"Good, I want you to meet me in the hanger in about two hours and Kira you're coming along too I might need an extra hand with this" he ordered to which Kira reluctantly nodded not liking the fact that Flay was about to be risking her life more than she already was but when she had made her rather shocking statement he knew that it was her choice and wouldn't try and question her on it.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Natarle had just returned from the cafeteria with several unsigned pieces of discharge paperwork in her hands "Captain I gave the discharge papers as instructed but they had all decided to join the ship's crew" she explained while the captain sighed "I really hope they know what it is they're getting into"<p>

"They probably do. Or to a certain extent at least" said Mu causing the captain to look at him "What do you mean?" she asked a little puzzled by Mu's statement

"They might be a little young but they aren't completely naïve besides they've been in a combat situation for the past three weeks I think that they'll probably be able to handle some of what's going to be coming our way here soon but they may not be ready for some of the other more horrific parts of this line of work, we should be ready for when that kind of thing happens"

That was mostly true those kids had been both helpful and resourceful over the last couple of weeks especially Kira and how he had managed to save them time and time again when he got into the Strike, Mu theorized that even though they had seen some combat if they were to see the full horrors of war then they would probably be scarred for the rest of their lives. And the Hawk of Endymion sincerely hoped that wouldn't happen.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hangers-<p>

* * *

><p>Adam and Drake were in the Archangel's main hanger where the armored cores and mobile suits were kept. The two pilots had been hoarding the absolute last two remaining beers that were on the ship almost zealously.<p>

Currently the pair was sitting down on the head of the Panzer which overlooked most of the hanger bay while Murdoch and the other engineers were going around doing whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. As the engineers worked they decided to not question what it was the two Raven pilots were up to, having already learned that there were just some things that were best left unexplained especially where those two maniacs were concerned.

"To the Zeus, that damned good ship managed to save our sorry asses at least hundred times over!" Drake cheered loudly while raising a bottle of beer before the two put their respective drinks to their lips and took in a quick gulp of the alcohol "To that random crewman who managed to have the intelligence, foresight and courage to rescue the last of our booze from our quarters before that magnificent ship went down!" Adam shouted and more of the alcoholic beverage slid down their throats.

"And finally to the crew as well as the ship known as the Archangel who have managed to give us the most fun that we've had in months!" they both yelled out looking at the bewildered technicians and mechanics who were failing to ignore the pair and wondered just what the hell it was they were doing as the last of their drink went down the two Raven pilot's throats.

Flay and Kira looked at the two Raven pilots antics with an odd expression on their faces while Nathan simply ignored them, apparently this was a common sight where he was concerned "What exactly are they doing" Flay asked gesturing to the duo who were still perched on top of the Panzer's head.

Nathan sighed almost instantly and pinched the bridge of his nose when he caught a glimpse of them doing their strange ritual.

"It's kind of like a habit or maybe even a kind of ritual that those two partake in every time they're about to run out of beer, they go up to the head of the Panzer and drink the last of their alcohol while toasting to random things. The last time that this happened they made a toast to how big some nurse's tits were" explained Nathan who shrugged almost nonchalantly while the two just gaped at him.

"Come on then let's get moving" Nathan ordered while Flay and Kira followed close behind. The unit that Flay was going to be piloting was the farthest away from the launching unit because it was unlikely that they were going to use it. It wasn't much to look at, it had a semi automatic rifle in one arm and a sub machine gun shaped like an Uzi in the other plus one energy blade into the left forearm for close quarters combat. The left and right shoulders housed short range rocket pod launchers that sent dozens of rockets out in almost every directions that was in front of the machine.

"I know that Beta isn't much to look at and it hasn't been upgraded for space combat so there won't be much we can do until we get back to earth" he said "So if that's the case then why are we going to be training with it?" Flay asked before Kira realized what it was they were going to be doing.

"Wait, the Strike has an onboard simulation unit are you telling me that armored cores do as well?" he asked

Nathan nodded before he went into detail "Well of course it's easier to just install a simulation unit rather than use thousands of dollars just to set up a live fire course for trainees each time we need to train in piloting an AC or mobile suit" he explained turning to the red head that was standing next to Kira "Flay you'll go through basic controls and targeting and when you're finished you'll then participate in a linked combat simulation with Kira" he ordered.

Flay got into the armored core as she was instructed and strapped herself in before the hatch leading out of the cockpit closed on her and the screens that were in front of her lit up and a calm female voice came from the speakers inside the unit.

"Activating tutorial programming, this program was created by the Bernard and Felix Foundation to assist non certified personel in training for them to use the armored core units to the best of their abilities on the field of battle" the screen changed and she saw that the screen had changed to an endless desert like wasteland "Now let's start off with basic movement".

And thus Flay began to learn the basics of piloting an armored core.

to be continued


	10. The Fall to Earth

Armored Seed

Chapter 10

Fall to Earth

Nathan was resting behind a computer terminal in the Archangel's hanger and was still monitoring Flay's progress in the simulator for the past two hours. At first he had almost immediately regretted to agreeing to train her as he watched Flay clumsily fall each and every single time she tried to move the Beta forwards or backwards but after thirty minutes she finally managed to get the machine to walk without it falling over on her repeatedly. The next phase with the training was using the thrusting mechanisms which could be rather challenging if one overheated them.

However it seemed that Flay was beginning to learn how to pilot a core rather quickly compared to most new recruits and if he had to guess he'd say that she'd be ready for combat in about a three weeks maybe even less if she continued at this pace. Once Flay had finished with the basic controls of an AC, Nathan ordered Kira to activate the Strike's simulation unit so that they could test Flay and Kira in a combat scenario. The Strike's cockpit closed and the simulation unit turned on.

Flay didn't have much idea what she should have been expecting after she was finished with the basics controls and responses but the screen changed from a desert to a nearly destroyed city she was going to question what was going on when the Strike appeared next to her but it didn't have an Aile package equipped like it normally did.

"Kira is that you?" Flay asked "Yeah it's me. Nathan plugged me into the simulator after you had finished with the basic controls and weapons he wanted to see how well we bothwould do in a combat situation" he said while Flay got a little nervous and was about to ask her friend just what kind of combat simulation that they were going to be partaking in when a. calm and composed female voice came over both machine's communications systems

"Your objective in this simulation is to eliminate a squadron of ZAFT GINN's that are about to attempt to overrun your current position, good luck" said the mechancal voice that Flay heard earlier in the basic movement and weapons simulation. A few seconds later they saw the enemy group beginning to converge on their location through the ruined streets and buildings. Flay aimed her semi auto rifle at the nearest enemy soldier that was approaching and opened fire. Her first two shots went wild and missed the GINN she was aiming at but her third shot finally hit the target that she was aiming for and went straight through the chest killing the pilot and causing the GINN to fall to the ground, rendering it completely useless now that it didn't' have a pilot.

She then chanced a look at how Kira was doing and saw that he had already destroyed three of the ten GINNs with the beam rifle that the Strike was equipped with. However the remaining six GINN's counterattacked almost the second after their comrades had fallen now realizing where Kira and Flay were. One of the GINN's opened fire with its bazooka. Flay barley managed to move the Beta before the bazooka round hit the wall behind her making it collapse down on top of the Beta

"Flay are you alright?" Kira asked over the communications channels. Although it was just a combat simulation he couldn't help but feel some concern for the girl "Y-yeah I'm fine" she answered nervously as she made the Beta pull itself out of the rubble of the destroyed building. Kira quickly returned enemy fire with the Strike's beam rifle the first shot hit the bazooka armed GINN in the head decapitating it the next two hit the machine square in the chest killing the pilot inside. The GINN then fell to the ground as it was now nothing more than a piece of metal slag.

The moment that Flay got out of the rubble the radar picked up that the last five GINNs were coming from behind them. She switched the weapons over to the SMG and opened fire most of her shots going wild and missing the targets completely and they then took cover behind some buildings and waited until Flay's wild firing ceased, they then got out from behind cover and the one closest to Flay drew its hard sword and charged her. Flay tried to retreat by using the thrusters only to end up crashing into the side of a nearby building.

The GINN got closer and closer and screamed while she raised her SMG and opened fire pouring white hot lead onto the enemy mobile suit. Due to the GINN being in close proximity to the Beta the SMG rounds literally tore through the enemy mobile suit and out the other side. Even after the GINN had lost its balance and fallen into a nearby building she still fired until her weapon made a series of clicks and Flay knew that she was out of ammunition.

Once she noticed that her weapon had started clicking she dropped it now that it was little more than dead weight. She then noticed another GINN and was about to open fire with her semi auto rifle when it was sliced in half courtesy of the Strike's beam saber. She let out a breath that she'd been unconsciously holding "Thank you Kira" she said as she looked at the scene before her. All of the GINNs that were attacking them had been completely destroyed most of which had been wiped out by Kira.

"Ah, no problem Flay" the boy responded as Flay's screen turned black and the words **simulation over** appeared on the center of the screen. The cockpit of the Beta opened up and the machine's new pilot took off her helmet and wiped the sweat she had gathered off of her forehead. Kira and Nathan floated over to her from where the Strike was located at.

"You need to heavily work on your movement, Kira had to save you from getting killed and that GINN that charged you left himself wide open for a preemptive strike but you let him take the initiative when you retreated and fell into that building and your aiming needs some serious work since several shots missed the intended target by a wide margin" said Nathan sounding heavily disappointed in her.

Flay looked down and Kira who noticed this was about to come to Flay's defense when Nathan continued "However you did manage to survive the simulation and complete your objectives that's good but your still nowhere near ready to engage in actual combat so until I say you're ready you'll be staying on board this ship and you will _not_ be heading out into combat until you have improved"

The red haired girl seemed to have regained her spirits "Thank you Nathan" she said and he shrugged "Your welcome I guess just don't make me regret agreeing to having you trained" he warned before he headed off towards the exit of the hanger.

Flay hated it when he did that. Always treating everyone around him like they weren't important enough for him to care "I hate it when he does that" she said. Kira looked at her and raised an eyebrow "Does what?"

"When he treats everyone around him like they aren't worth his time" she explained "Haven't you noticed that whenever we're nearby he doesn't even seem to care about anyone, not even himself"

Kira bit his lip he wanted to explain to Flay what Nathan had been through but he stopped himself, he promised Nathan that he wouldn't keep his mouth shut about what the Raven operator had told him. "I'm sure he's got a good reason for acting the way he does" Kira defended.

Flay sighed "I hope you're right about that Kira" the two of them then left the hanger and headed for the cafeteria to see what their friends were up to now that their shifts were over.

They were about halfway to the cafeteria when several warning sirens went off signaling that there was an attack going on. Kira was about to head back to the hanger when Flay grabbed him. Kira looked down at the girl's hand before looking up at Flay's face that appeared to be genuinely worried for him.

"Promise me you'll come back" she all but begged. Kira smiled for a moment and said "I give you my word that everything will be fine" he said before Flay let go with a smile on her face and allowed Kira to head back to the hanger. The young Coordinator rushed back with renewed determination in his heart. He would keep his promise to Flay and come back alive and make sure that nobody would ever hurt her again.

The minute he got back into the hanger he saw that Mu's Moebius Zero, the Lucifer and the White Knight had already launched and the Panzer which was the only other space capable AC was currently on the launch catapult while the Strike sat there waiting for its pilot.

Kira jumped into the machine and began to walk it towards the launcher "Kira this is Sky Eye I'll be filling in for Mir for this mission the enemy is comprised of the three stolen prototypes and a single Laurasia class frigate and I recommend that you stay away from it, you simply don't have the armament go take on an enemy ship single handed"

"Understood Sky Eye, this is Kira Yamato in the Strike. Launching now!"

The Strike was then catapulted out into the abyss known as space and almost immediately he saw the Black Skulls engaging the stolen prototypes. When the pilot of the Duel noticed the Strike he immediately made a B-line for it fully intending on destroying the machine here and now.

"Nichol I'll handle the Strike now you go and take care of the Legged Ship" Yzak ordered while firing his beam rifle at Kira's mobile suit.

"Got it!" Nichol said before engaging the Blitz's mirage colloid system.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>"Ma'am the Blitz has just vanished off of the thermal detection!" shouted Nicolai Sokolov, Nicolai was a Zeus crewmember and was now the backup sensor operator for the Archangel. It was his shift when the attack started and so far he was proving to be very competent as a member of the ship's CIC.<p>

"Fire anti beam depth charges and ready shrapnel warheads for firing!" ordered Natarle. The crew did as they were told and the anti beam depth charges were launched all around the Archangel so that when the Blitz fired its beam rifle the laser would be deflected away from the ship rather than at it.

Sure enough the moment that the Blitz fired four shots it was deflected away from the Archangel and with each shot the Blitz became more and more visible to the enemy but this was only for a few brief seconds before its mirage colloid system reactivated. "Ensign Badgiruel I have the location of the Blitz we can fire the warheads whenever you like!" announced Nicolai "Fire anti air shrapnel warheads now!" she ordered.

The Archangel then launched several warheads each one contained dozens of small missiles that would spread out in almost every direction. The shrapnel warheads were originally designed to counter large groups of enemy fighters and bombers. Under normal circumstances any sort of conventional solid slug weapon was near useless against a mobile suit with PS armor because of its near invulnerability against kinetically fired weapons but this wasn't an issue this time. When the Blitz activated its mirage colloid unit the pilot had to turn off the phase shift armor because the power drain would be too much for the mobile suit power supply.

The shrapnel warheads opened up and fired in the approximate direction that the Blitz was located but before any of the large pieces of metal could hit the Blitz it deactivated its mirage colloid and turned on its phase shift armor milliseconds before the shrapnel impacted the Gundam and bounced off the mobile suit. Nichol sighed that was far too close, if he wasn't a Coordinator the Blitz would be filled with nothing but giant shards of metal by now.

Since the anti beam depth charges had already been used Nichol was free to bombard the Archangel to his hearts content.

* * *

><p>-Space-<p>

* * *

><p>"The only reason you lived through the last battle you little bitch is because of your fancy armor but not this time mother fucker!" Drake yelled while he opened fire on the Buster with his main weapons once again. This time the bazookas had been replaced with focused beam cannons that were considered by most militaries to be D-Class equipment because of their high destructive power and their ability to destroy capital ships in only a few hits.<p>

He opened fire with the cannons again and the Buster barley managed to dodge the attack _'Where the hell did they get that kind of equipment'_ Dearka wondered before he opened fire with his gun launcher "Damn it why won't this lunatic just die?" Dearka mumbled to himself in frustration as he fired his gun launcher again and again but pilot of the Panzer anticipated this move and managed to side step his opponents gunfire with his thrusters.

"You're gonna have to be quicker than that you little pussy" the enemy pilot taunted through the communications channels and of course Dearka heard every word of it. The ZAFT pilot then unleashed a missile salvo from the shoulder housed launchers while opening fire with both the gun launcher and the energy rifle.

Drake barley managed to avoid the gun launcher and energy rifle fire but unfortunately he was hit dead on by the missile salvo and the Panzer's normally thick hull was beginning to buckle under the shots "Damn it!" he yelled switching his communicator to a secure frequency as to not let his opponent know that his armor was slowly starting to fail under his opponents attacks.

He was about to call for support but saw that the Buster had combined its gun launcher and energy rifle and was aiming it directly at him "Oh fuck me" Drake muttered to himself with his eyes widened in horror, he knew that he wouldn't be able to block or dodge that next attack but before the Buster could fire an energy beam hit the mobile suit right in the arm it was handling the weapon with throwing the Buster's aim off enough that it barley missed the Panzer.

The Panzer's head turned and he saw the White Knight aiming its new beam rifle at the Buster "Thanks commander" said Drake as he breathed out a sigh of relief "I was afraid that every woman on earth would be crying themselves to sleep tonight" he joked while Cross rolled his eyes Drake always did something like this even when he was seconds away from death.

"Just try to concentrate on fighting soldier!" the commander ordered in no mood for Drake's nonsense at the moment.

"Aye, aye sir!" he said while the Moebius Zero began to open fire on the Buster which nimbly dodged most of the attacks. La Flaga then activated the Zero's gun barrels which then detached from the mobile armor and opened fire on the Buster but since the gun barrels used kinetic ammunition it was next to useless against the PS armor that the Buster used.

The number of shots simply bounced uselessly off of the thing's phase shift but it allowed for an opening for the Moebius Zero's linear gun which was much more powerful than the gun barrels it was just using. The shot from the weapon managed to graze the Buster's leg and give it a small amount of damage.

Kira and Nathan were having their hands full with the Duel who was proving to be the pilots' equal in combat. Nathan opened fire with his beam rifle and shoulder mounted missile launchers. The Duel managed to block the beam rifle fire and missiles with it's shield Kira was about to open fire when he heard Mir's voice come over the communications channels "Kira please help the Blitz is attacking the bridge we can't hold out for much longer!" she begged "I'm coming" he said as a purple seed ran across his face and exploded.

Kira's pupils shrank and his iris' became enlarged and seconds later it looked and felt as though the universe had slowed down around him. He then sped his mobile suit forward as fast as the thrusters would allow while the Duel came in behind him despite the fact it was being fired upon. Kira took out his beam saber not willing to risk damage to the Archangel and slashed at the now retreating Blitz almost taking its arm clean off if it wasn't for Nichol noticing that the Strike was heading his way he probably would have gotten killed. As the Blitz pulled back a little Yzak went in for the kill, the Duel drew one of its beam sabers but Kira predicted this attack and easily dodged it before the Strike took out one of the Armor Schneider knives and shoved it into the chest of the machine.

Yzak tried to move his machine away but his controls weren't responding to his commands. The knives continued to dig themselves into the torso of the machine. Yzak continued to try and get his controls to do what he wanted. Unfortunately his efforts were for naught as the Armor Schneider's caused an explosion from part of the equipment which caused his helmet's visor to shatter scratching part of his face. The white haired boy then cried out in agony.

"Oh sweet lord it hurts!" he screamed in agony. Nichol heard the cries of pain and suffering and quickly went to recover his comrade and began to drag the Duel back towards the Gamow.

Drake watched the enemy retreat and was anxious to destroy the guys who had been hounding them for the last several weeks but even he was smart enough to realize that they were more than likely still at near full power and besides they had won the day and he could accept that but there was one thing he had to do before heading back to the Archangel.

The Raven pilot opened up communications on an open channel "Yeah you better run bitches!" he taunted. The machines and their pilots quickly headed back to the Archangel.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger bay-<p>

* * *

><p>After Kira and the others had landed they received word that admiral Halburton was coming on board to the Archangel himself to meet the crew. The admiral's shuttle then proceeded to land in the main hanger where the Strike and the AC's were located.<p>

The members of Black team stood at attention along with captain Hackett. Despite their dislike for most of the Earth Forces, they had much respect for the admiral for not being a complete pain in the ass like Garcia was.

To the Skulls most of the Earth Forces were the lowest scum but Halburton had managed to win their respect because of his lack of bigotry towards Coordinators and most of them wished that he would come to his senses and switch sides but he was very loyal to the Atlantic Federation despite its racism towards Coordinators.

The shuttle that carried the admiral opened its main doors and the man stepped out and everyone gave the man a respectful salute before the man told everyone to be at ease. The Atlantic Federation admiral then noticed a certain face in the crowd of Black Skulls soldiers an old friend in fact he walked right up to the man and the two shook hands.

"Well if it isn't captain Nigel Hackett of the Zeus I never thought that I'd be seeing you onboard an Earth Forces ship after the start of this damn war" he said "Well what can I say old friend? It was either stay on board the Zeus and be blown to space dust or save my crew and come on board this ship" Hackett joked to his friend. Murrue and the other members of the Skulls looked almost stunned at the admission that Hackett and Halburton were old friends.

Natarle stepped forward and asked "Pardon me sir but I feel that I have to ask. Just how is it do you know a mercenary commander?" Halburton then just chuckled "Do you think that Hackett here was always part of a Raven unit, we met each other before the war when the Black Skulls still did work for Atlantic Federation and Eurasia but that's another story for another time"

Halburton then noticed the group of students that were in Atlantic Federation volunteer uniforms and he walked up to them "And I presume that you are the students who have joined the Earth Forces military?" they gave affirmations to his questions.

"Well I have some good news for all of you then, your family members that were on Heliopolis have been found alive and well" the volunteers then burst into happy tears relieved that their loved ones were still amongst the living.

To most observers Flay appeared to be very happy that her friends' families were safe but was inwardly crying that she had absolutely no one in the world to go home to. Kira however noticed this and promised himself that he'd try and talk to her about sometime soon.

The young Coordinator was too engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the admiral coming towards him until he was right in front of him "So you must be ensign Kira Yamato" he said. Kira almost jumped he had been so distracted that he hadn't even notice the admiral approach him "Uh-yes sir!" the young Coordinator said while snapping into a salute "At ease ensign" Kira immediately relaxed somewhat

"I wanted to thank you personally for the sacrifices that you have made to the Atlantic Federation during the battle of Heliopolis and the weeks that followed" Halburton said extending his hand forward. Kira immediately took it and the two soldiers shook hands.

"I was just trying to protect my friends, sir" Kira explained "Well despite whatever reason it was you had at the time it was still pretty damned impressive that someone who hadn't even fought in combat even once before in his life" said the admiral "Thank you sir". the admiral then let Kira along with the other volunteers leave since he wanted to discuss certain things with captain Ramius personally.

* * *

><p>-Vesalius bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset was slightly disappointed in his subordinates. They went on a fools errand to destroy the Archangel ten minutes before they were scheduled to rendezvous with the eighth fleet. Now admiral Halburton would be expecting an attack but Rau supposed it was of little consequence.<p>

Although Admiral Halburton himself was in command of the fleet almost all of the soldiers that were under his command were primarily new recruits and despite the obvious number advantage that they now had Rau however had in his possession four of the five stolen G-Weapons which were near impervious to most of the Eighth's weapons.

He turned to captain Ades and said "Prepare our mobile suits for combat we're going after the Archangel" he said calmly much to the captain's surprise "But sir they have the entire Eighth Fleet protecting them I think that it would be best if-" he started but Le Creuset cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"I understand your reluctance captain but we have ten GINN's plus the stolen G-Weapons besides I'd rather finish this fight out in space rather than in the enemy's territory" to his subordinate who did as he was told "Yes sir I'll let the commanders of the Gamow and the Pangaea know"

* * *

><p>-Archangel Captain's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Admiral Halburton and his second in command sat across from Murrue, Natarle, and Mu. "Captain Ramius I know that you and your crew have been through much these last few weeks but the Atlantic Federation's high command has now given you explicit orders to head for the Alaskan Headquarters but unfortunately we won't be able to accompany you there and we won't be able to offer any support craft capable of atmospheric flight save for about three Skygraspers" Halburton explained "Understood sir"<p>

"Now you stated in your report that it was commander Le Creuset was the leader of the ZAFT squadron who has been hunting you since Heliopolis?" the admiral asked. To be honest Halburton wasn't very surprised that this was the case.

Commander Le Creuset was probably one of the most ruthless ZAFT commanders that he had ever come across. Le Creuset's willingness to do almost anything to win the war was only matched by his determination and his incredible skill in combat strategy it wouldn't be like him to not try and eliminate the Archangel while it was still in the environment that he was most comfortable fighting in.

"Yes sir he and his forces have been chasing ever since we escaped from that colony" Murrue explained and Halburton stroked his mustache for a moment before he spoke.

"If that is the case captain then I recommend that you have this ship's crew put on standby security alert, commander Le Creuset is more than likely going to attempt to attempt to strike while your still on his playing field" the admiral suggested

"Very well sir I'll have our combat forces standing by" she said as the two officers gave each other a respectful salute.

Kira and the others headed back to the main crew quarters after the admiral had told them the good news. Kira was sitting down in the cafeteria tiredly when he saw a little girl run up to him. The young Coordinator wondered just what the girl was doing.

"Hey mister are you the one who's been protecting us?" the girl asked "Well yeah I guess you could say that but I'm not the only one who's been protecting the people on this ship" said Kira modestly but the girl reached behind her and pulled out an origami flower that she had made.

It was made with regular paper and he found it a little difficult to believe that she made it herself but it was a kind gesture that she went to the trouble of making him something like that.

"I just wanted to say thank you for protecting us" she said handing him the origami flower "Thank you" he said "Do you think that I'll ever get to see you again?" she asked.

Kira smiled "I'm sure we'll see each other again some day soon" he promised before the little girl smiled and said "Goodbye" before she ran off presumably to go and see her mother.

Kira was about to go and talk to Flay but a voice coming from behind him prevented him from even taking a few steps towards where she was currently bunked "Hey Kira get your ass over here boy, captain Ramius wants you on standby in the hanger case ZAFT decides to try and take us out before hit earth's atmosphere" ordered Cross. Kira sighed he wanted to go and see Flay but he wouldn't disobey an order from the captain.

"Yes sir!" said Kira before he followed the man to the hanger. They passed several refugees on their way there who were packing what possessions that they had brought with them and getting ready to leave the Archangel and head back to the safety of Orb. In a way Kira envied them, he wanted nothing more than to just join them in leaving this ship and go back to Orb but he would never just abandon his friends like that, especially while they were still on board the Archangel.

Commander Cross noticed that Kira was lagging behind a little and he called out "Come on kid are you coming or not" "Sorry I was just-" Kira started but he stopped himself "I'm sorry it's not that important sir" he said Cross almost sighed, he knew that the kid must have been pretty damned conflicted at the moment but now wasn't' the time or the place for such thinking.

"Then move your ass we've got to get to the hanger" the commander barked. Kira nodded and followed Cross to the hanger not letting anything else distract him.

When he arrived at the hanger he could see that the other pilots on the ship were already getting ready for combat and Kira noticed that the launcher package was already being fitted onto the Strike "So what do we do now?" he asked "That's simple we basically wait here until we're called out should ZAFT try and launch a last minute assault on us before we head back down to earth" the commander explained.

Almost immediately after Cross had finished speaking everyone in the hanger heard several alarms going off signaling a level one alert.

"Of course this happens right after I'm done talking about an attack" he muttered to himself irritably. Kira was about to run up and board the Strike but a hand on his shoulder stopped him "Kira we're on standby alert which means that we aren't supposed to go out there until ordered by a superior officer" said Mu La Flaga.

Nathan who was nearby understood what Mu was trying to tell the kid but he still didn't like it. The admiral more than likely wanted to keep the Archangel out of the battle as much as possible because of the importance it held to the Atlantic Federation brass at JOSH-A and Halburton was more than likely going all out to protect the ship for that very purpose.

But he could have at least ordered out the armored cores to help increase the admiral's odds of coming out of this battle in one piece. But he supposed that there wasn't much point in whining about it, something told the Raven operator that they would probably be sent out into combat before the battle's conclusion and that thought made him and several others a little apprehensive about the situation that they were all in.

* * *

><p>-Space around the Eighth Fleet-<p>

* * *

><p>The attack was sudden but not unexpected considering the circumstances. Commander Rau Le Creuset had been dogging them ever since they had escaped Heliopolis it was only natural that the ZAFT commander would attempt another strike before the Archangel and her cargo attempted to make their way down to Earth.<p>

Most of admiral Halburton's fleet was comprised of new recruits who were fresh out of the academy. This would put them at a severe disadvantage especially since ZAFT was deploying mobile suits comprised of the stolen prototypes and a group of GINNs.

The Atlantic Federation fleet was comprised of a large number of Drake class escort ships, five or six Nelson class destroyers and the admiral's flagship an Agamemnon class carrier along with almost a hundred Moebius class mobile armor units.

The enemy mobile suits approached at high speeds to the fleet. The majority of the ZAFT GINNs were equipped with bazookas and beam rifles so it would be child's play for them to eliminate the Atlantic Federation Mobile Armors. Yzak however wasn't concerned with the enemy mobile armors however. Instead Yzak was hoping to set his sights on a much more valuable target, the Strike.

Despite being wounded during the last battle Yzak was still much more than capable of fighting off mobile armors. While looking for the Strike he set his sights on a nearby Drake and opened fire with his beam rifle. The shots went straight through the primary reactor causing the ship to explode.

One of the nearby Moebius' opened fire with it's linear gun before launching several missiles at the Duel. The rounds from the linear gun and the missiles did little to no damage to the Duel which simply drew its beam saber and sliced the Moebius in half before the Earth Forces mobile armor was destroyed in a brilliant and fiery explosion.

Athrun had already taken out almost five or six of the Eighth Fleet's Drakes that were trying to fight back with several hits from the Aegis' mobile armor form's Scylla cannon. Athrun thought that this was simply too damn easy for the mobile suits to take out the enemy mobile armors. If Kira and his mercenary friends showed up it might be a bit more of a challenge but it would still be hard for him to shoot at his childhood friend.

He noticed that the Buster was nearby and he opened up communications "Hey Dearka what's your status?" he asked. Dearka almost laughed the eighth fleet's defenses were pitiful "Are you sure that we're fighting against the eighth fleet because this feels more like training than an actual fight!" he laughed.

They continued to smash their way through the Eighth Fleet's ships and mobile armor's with only three GINN casualties to anti air fire. As they advanced the Vesalius and its two other Laurasia class frigates gave them covering fire. Soon all that remained of the entire eighth fleet was five Drakes, two Nelsons and the admiral's flagship.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>"Ma'am the Buster and the Duel have broken through the fleet's perimeter and are now preparing to come after us" said Sai. The ship then rocked slightly indicating that they had been hit somewhere on the ship. Before Murrue could say anything Kira's voice came over the communications equipment "Captain, let me go out there I can help" he said "Kira now's not the time to-" she started "Ma'am I can help until we get to the final phase of reentry, besides the Strike can survive atmospheric reentry" Kira insisted.<p>

"I can't allow that Kira the risk is too great" said Murrue. Kira was about to try and persuade her again when they heard Nathan "This is lieutenant Fletcher, I recommend that we do that we do as he requests captain at the rate they're pounding us we won't last long enough to get into Earth's gravity but if Kira's going out there I am as well, the Lucifer is also capable of atmospheric entry so even if we can't get back to the Archangel in time we should be alright" he explained

Before Murrue could repeat to Nathan what she just told Kira, Natarle interjected "Do it you have permission just keep your eye on the altitude and time!"

"I will thank you" said Kira while he and Nathan piloted their machines over to the launcher.

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel what do you think you're doing?" demanded captain Ramius angrily "Ma'am if this ship is lost then the Eighth Fleet's sacrifices will have been for nothing!" Natarle responded hotly.

* * *

><p>-Space-<p>

* * *

><p>The Eighth Fleet was almost completely gone. The last of their remaining mobile armors were destroyed as well as all but the command ship and one of the Nelson's that had taken heavy damage and was currently engaging the Gamow which was recklessly attempting to destroy the Nelson and the Archangel if it could.<p>

When Kira, Nathan and Mu La Flaga had launched from the Archangel it was getting more and more difficult to even try to maneuver because of how close they were to entering the atmosphere. Once they got inside it would be difficult to change course or get out of Earths gravitational pull.

Nathan shot forward like a bullet all the while he kept a close eye on the altitude gauge that was on one of the screens in front of him. He took a quick glance at La Flaga who was flying towards a Laurasia class in an attempt to save the admiral and some of his men but Nathan believed that it would be a fools mission because of the damage that the Nelson that was currently engaged with the enemy ship told him that neither ship wouldn't last long no matter what they attempted to do.

Nathan was proven right a few seconds later when after Mu managed to destroy the Laurasia class frigate the Nelson had taken too much damage and a series of explosions shot through both the interior and exterior of the ship before it and every living thing on board was vaporized.

Nathan turned his attention back at his current task. The closest target that he could get to was right below him, the Buster which was dangerously close to being caught in the planet's gravitational pull.

Nathan took aim with his beam rifle and opened fire from above it taking the enemy mobile suit by surprise "Damn mercenary!" he heard the other pilot curse. The Buster attempted to use it's thrusters but it was completely trapped in Earth's gravitational pull. Nathan now had an easy target one that couldn't dodge any attack that Nathan would throw at him. He took aim with his beam rifle aiming directly for the cockpit of the enemy machine

"Got you now you son of a bitch" he muttered to himself taking aim.

Dearka was panicking there was no way he could maneuver without burning up and he sure as hell wouldn't be able to fire back "Crap, Athrun, somebody help me!" he begged into the radio. At first no one responded and the pilot of the Buster thought that it was going to be curtains for him but much to his relief a voice came over the comm. Channels "I'm coming Dearka, hold on!" yelled Nichol.

but before Nathan could shoot the enemy unit his radar detected an incoming hostile directly to his three o'clock. He turned his machine and saw the Blitz with an activated beam saber heading straight for him. "Damn it" he cursed as he barely managed to dodge the enemy machine's charge. This also messed up his shot which was supposed to destroy the Buster and its pilot which was now out of range of his weapon.

"Thanks Nichol I thought that the merc had me there for a second." said Dearka looking over his instruments and he noticed that there wasn't any possible way he could get back into space and get back to the Vesalius "No problem, listen the Blitz wasn't upgraded for atmospheric entry I have to head back to the Vesalius and you should be out of weapons range I'm sorry" said Nichol

Dearka just laughed, it was just like Nichol to feel as though he was abandoning someone when he had no other choice but to fall back "I'll be fine Nichol just get out of here and head back to commander Le Creuset's ship" Dearka ordered while the Blitz complied with said order and flew back to the ship.

Since it was too late to take out the Buster Nathan settled with a new target that was nearby, the Blitz. He turned his armored core and saw that the Blitz was already heading back to its command ship "A feint eh, why am I not surprised" he said to himself and he attempted to head back to the Archangel but was caught in the gravitational pull of earth. Nathan knew that he'd be fine and tried to relax a little bit while the Lucifer's internal and external cooling mechanisms did their work.

He looked up and saw that Kira and the Duel were still fighting, sort of. Kira had just moved beyond the range of the Duel's beam rifle and he smiled at least everyone was alright. He then noticed a troop transport heading down past the two and realized that was the ship that was carrying the civilians that they had picked up from Heliopolis. They were still alive!

To say that Nathan was relieved was an understatement. He was all but certain that civilians were dead but they weren't they were alive. Unfortunately his relief was short lived as the Duel stopped shooting at the Strike and switched its aim at the fleeing transport.

Nathan's eyes widened in horror "No" he said but his words came out as a hoarse whisper "No damn it don't fire please don't fire" he begged to himself but his prayers were dashed when the Duel opened fire with its beam rifle and the shot went straight through the shuttle and out the other side before it burst into flames and then burned up.

* * *

><p>-space, a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Once Kira had launched he was almost immediately attacked by the Duel which had been upgraded with an assault shroud system which gave it additional armor as well as a shoulder mounted rail gun and missile launcher. The Duel drew its beam saber and Kira did as well.<p>

"Die Strike!" the pilot yelled over Duel's speakers before it charged at him. The two locked sabers for a second or two before they each pulled back and the Duel's pilot holstered his close combat weapon before he opened fire with his beam rifle.

Kira used the Strike's shield to deflect the shots and he returned fire and came close to blowing off a piece of the Duel's assault shroud. The two continued to fire at one another until they were finally caught in a gravitational pull. Yzak fired another three shots at the Strike but unfortunately for the pilot of the Duel, the beams dissipated before they could hit the enemy mobile suit which signaled that it was out of range.

Kira then attempted to head back to the Archangel but found that he was already caught in the atmosphere and that meant that there was no way he could return to the Archangel. The Duel however was still nearby still trying to kill him despite the fact that his weapon would be completely ineffective but Yzak continued to open fire on the target intent on finishing off the Strike once and for all.

Another contact came up on Kira's radar and he spotted the new contact on the main monitor of the Strike. It was the civilian transport. Kira gave let out a sigh of relief until he saw that the Duel had switched targets. He heard the enemy's voice over the communications equipment

"Well it looks like some cowards are trying to escape, die you Natural bastards!" the Duel's pilot roared in fury before the mobile suit aimed it's beam rifle at the escaping transport and fired. Kira activated the Strike's thrusters and sped forward intent on using himself as a shield so that the civilians could get away. But unfortunately he couldn't make it in time and the weapons fire from the beam rifle went straight through the shuttle which half a second later was destroyed in a fiery explosion.

The instant that it was gone Kira immediately thought of that girl who had given him the origami flower to thank him for protecting everyone.

The pilot of the Strike couldn't move, hell the poor boy was in complete shock at what he had just seen as he fell out of the sky, as the machine fell all that Kira could think about was his failure. The Gs quickly overtook him and he blacked out still falling in an oven like cockpit.

To be continued


	11. Behind Enemy Lines

Armored Seed

Chapter 11

Behind Enemy Lines

A/N: if you haven't figured it out yet this is going to be Kira x Flay so for those of you who don't like that pairing can leave now but don't flame me just because you don't like the pairing.

disclaimer: i only own the Black Skulls everything else is owned by their respective copyright owners

* * *

><p>Nathan groggily opened his eyes and he saw a vast meadow of flowers around him that appeared to go on without end. The Raven operator then raised his eyebrows in confusion. This was like something out of a bad romance novel that Li would always by during her shopping trips. Just by looking around he knew that he was obviously dreaming but everything actually seemed as though he was truly there.<p>

But that was impossible he was falling out of the sky when the Gs caused him to lose consciousness. He began to wonder if he was dreaming but everything in it screamed reality. It looked real, felt real and seemed real. A twig snapped behind him and he turned around and saw someone that he knew to have been dead for over a year, Mira Blake.

She seemed to be alive and well, her long flowing blue hair and she gave him the same kind and generous smile that he had seen on Lacus' face every so often while she was on board the Archangel.

"I've missed you so much Nathan" she said before running and embracing the shocked Raven operator into a hug. Nathan didn't know how to react to this. This had to have been some kind of dream or hallucination but it felt and seemed to be so real "This-this can't be real y-you're dead, you died on Junius Seven when the nuke hit it" he stuttered so softly that he didn't think that Mira had heard him.

The two of them just stood there for a while and eventually Nathan melted into the embrace and hugged back for what felt like an eternity but she then suddenly stopped and backed off leaving Nathan to wonder what the hell was going on. Mira's head was down cast, her bangs obscuring her face and Nathan was confused as to why she was doing this.

"You killed us Nathan, you promised that you'd always protect me but you couldn't stop any of us from dying" she said before she looked up at him revealing her face to him once again. The armored core pilot's eyes widened while his mouth just hung open. He couldn't even manage to form words as he was so disturbed at the sight of the person in front of him, most of Mira's body was like that of a corpse.

Her eyes were glazed over and she seemed sickly pale with some of her veins showing on the surface of her face along with some of her flesh looked as though it was starting to peel off of her face. He took an another observation and saw that now Mira's once elegant concert outfit had been stained with a brownish red color that looked like dried blood. Most of the outfit was completely tattered and had torn in several areas of the dress.

Nathan continued to back up while the corpse thing advanced on him. He didn't even make it two feet before he felt himself hit something and he quickly turned one hundred and sixty degrees to try and see what it was he had bumped into but when he turned around the landscape had drastically changed. He was now in a seemingly endless pitch black void with what looked like fire in the distance. However that wasn't even what he was focused on though there were hundreds if not thousands of corpse people staring at him.

"You killed all of us when you weren't there when we needed you most!" they chorused darkly. Nathan turned around again and saw that he was completely surrounded by the creatures but he was more specifically looking at the one in front of him, Mira who was less then three feet in front of him "I'm so sorry I wasn't there please I just-" he started but he was cut off by Mira's now demonic sounding voice

"No amount of redemption will ever make up for your failures, you're the reason we're dead not the Atlantic Federation or Blue Cosmos but you. You might as well have fired the nuke yourself. You're just as guilty as they are!" she yelled before all of the corpse creatures lunged at him at once with fully intent on tearing the one that they had found to be guilty into pieces.

* * *

><p>Nathan Fletcher gasped as he awoke while leaning forward. His breath came out slightly ragged and shallow for a few seconds. The Raven operator quickly got over the initial shock of the nightmare he had just been in and attempted to shake himself awake reassuring himself several times that he was just having a nightmare. Nathan continued to breath heavily for a few more moments before he finally came out of his shock. Nathan couldn't afford to be lying down on the job, especially now all because he just had a bad dream.<p>

Nathan quickly took off his boiling hot helmet and tossed it aside before taking several deep breaths _'Okay now I have to see where I'm at'_ he thought to himself before taking a look at the long range thermal detection unit and saw that it was giving off nothing but static

'_Great'_ he thought_ 'It must be N-Jammer interference'_ he thought as he sighed in annoyance.

Shortly after the Bloody Valentines Massacre ZAFT had fired a large number of missiles at earth each one containing an N-Jammer that burrowed deep into the earth and prevented the use of nuclear energy but they could also used to jam sensors and long range communications. This caused a massive energy crisis on Earth and helped to jump start the war with the PLANTs. Personally Nathan believed that ZAFT was more than justified in doing this.

After all thousands of innocent people were murdered and ZAFT had every damn right to deploy a failsafe to prevent another massacre like that from happening again. Although right now the PLANT's little failsafe was going to be causing him some serious problems he had no idea if Kira or anyone else was still alive but he had a gut feeling that they were still among the living.

Nathan began to wonder if he should try and risk communications but quickly decided against it, it could alert ZAFT to his position not to mention that it was unlikely that he could get a message out with all of this interference but he was more than willing to try and make his way to the nearest population center, he just had to figure out where the hell he was.

Nathan switched the long range thermal detection unit off in near frustration and turned on the short range radar which couldn't detect anything outside of that of a half a mile radius. He was about to sigh in frustration when he saw something on the radar. It wasn't the Archangel or a town that was for sure, the reading was simply far too small for either of those. In fact the signature on the screen looked much more like a mobile suit. Realization hit him that it was most likely the Strike.

He activated his armored core's thrusters and the giant machine slowly rose off and out of the sands of the vast seemingly unending desert and took to the air before it flew in the direction of where the radar had said that the signature was coming from.

Once Nathan arrived at the scene where the radar said that the machine would be located at he saw that there was in fact a Gundam that was partially buried in the sands it's armor rendered grey from the lack of energy to power the phase shift armor, both of the mobile suit's legs and one of the arms were buried by all of the sand while the machine's right arm was extended upwards the skies as though it was trying to reach out and grasp someone or something important.

Nathan instantly recognized the machine to be the Strike and he immediately let out a sigh of relief. If the Strike managed to make its way down then maybe just maybe Kira survived like he did.

The Lucifer slowly descended to the sea of seemingly endless sands below. Once it landed the armored core kneeled down before its cockpit opened up allowing Nathan to exit out of the machine. In his hands he held a steel rope with several small grips attached, this rather simple device was called a pilot hook and its purpose was simple. It was used to get pilots in and out of AC's and mobile suits in a hurry during a combat situation.

The winch that kept the pilot hook attached to the AC began to lower the Raven down onto the desert below. It took a few seconds but once Nathan hit the ground he ran as fast as his legs would carry him over to the Strike tripping slightly on his way up the hill of sand when he shifted too much weight onto his left leg. He quickly recovered from the near fall and managed to get onto the Strike's massive hand.

He quickly made his way to the cockpit and looked for any kind of manual release mechanism for the cockpit that had to have been located somewhere on the machine chest. At first Nathan didn't seem able find one but then after a few second of searching he found it. There was a small hand sized release unit near the top of the entry hatch that allowed the pilot to enter or exit the machine. He should have checked that spot when he first made it up onto the machine but it didn't matter now.

Nathan grasped the hatch with both of his hands and pulled back as hard as he could pull. It took the Raven pilot almost all of his strength to force the cockpit's hatch open. When he opened the Strike's hatch he was assaulted by near boiling heat that sent him recoiling backwards on reflex. Nathan waited a moment or two before he took a peak inside and he saw that Kira was still sitting on the pilot's seat completely unconscious the kid also looked as though he was about die from the high temperature.

He climbed inside the Gundam and was still assaulted by the hot air although it wasn't' as bad as it was earlier and unbuckled him from the seat and put the unconscious pilot over his shoulder and climbed out of the Strike's cockpit. As Nathan slowly helped Kira back to the Lucifer he started to think about how much that Kira had gone through just so that he could protect his friends.

Nathan hoped that they realized just how valuable a person like Kira was but then again Nathan supposed that they probably already knew that. He carried Kira over to the pilot hook and held onto the young Coordinator as they were both pulled up to the machine. As they went up Nathan felt as though his grip was slowly slipping every half second due to the sweat on his hands which made holding onto the kid exceedingly difficult and annoying.

It took about ten seconds for the pilot hook to reach back to the Lucifer's cockpit hatch given the added weight on the machine. Once he managed to get up into the cockpit he set Kira down in the command chair and took off the kid's helmet so that he'd be able to breath a little bit easier than just letting him stay in that stuffy helmet.

He then activated the machine's built in environment system which adjusted the cockpit's temperature to make sure that the pilot of the machine was at least somewhat comfortable while piloting. Nathan looked over at the communications terminal in front of Kira and turned it on, it was a long shot and one hell of a risk if ZAFT was listening in for any enemy communications but it was probably the only chance either of them had of getting out of there alive.

"Mayday mayday this is Black Skull Raven pilot Nathan Fletcher I am in need of assistance is anyone out there?" he waited a few moments but was greeted with only static. He tried again.

"I repeat this is Black Skull Raven pilot Nathan Fletcher I am in need of assistance" still nothing but empty static. "If there is anyone out there is receiving this transmission please respond I got a wounded man who is in need of medical attention" he said again but like before there was no one there.

"If anyone is listening to this transmission please respond" he said frustrated that no one was getting his message. For a few seconds it seemed like that no one was going to answer him through the static but he heard a person's voice that he had never thought he'd be glad to hear "Hey Nathan, it's Adam just hang in there buddy, help is on the way" Nathan's teammate

said and Nathan let out a breath that he'd been unconsciously holding in, it seemed that they were actually going to make it out of this alive.

"It's about god damned time. Do you have my current location?" asked the pilot and the voice on the other end gave out a small chuckle "Oh yeah, we got you covered just wait where you are and we'll come to you"

* * *

><p>-Archangel Infirmary a few minutes earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Just a few hours ago the Archangel had changed its course in order to go rescue Kira and Nathan mostly because of the bridge staff's insistence that they go after them. Once Flay had found out that Kira had left the Archangel to go and assist what was left of the Eighth Fleet she felt her heart stop and became more worried about him than she ever had before. The second Flay had heard that he had gone out again, the girl began to pray to whatever deity that was listening to protect Kira and see that he would make it safely back to the ship.<p>

Much to her horror however, she heard that only Mu La Flaga had returned alone saying that Kira and Nathan were still out there fighting, she then did something that no one really expected her to do. Flay Allster fainted on the spot thinking that the boy that she had begun to develop feelings for during the past several weeks, could very well have died in combat. The red haired girl was then quickly carried into the infirmary where they set her down on one of the medical beds where she currently was resting.

It was almost two or three hours later but Flay's eyes slowly opened and she saw that Mir and her other friends (Except for Kira) were watching over her. Mir turned and shouted over to her friends. "Hey she's awake!" they all then dropped what it was that they were doing and looked over at Flay who was still lying down and slowly began to sit up.

"What-what happened and where's Kira?" the red haired girl asked worriedly having noticed that Kira was not amongst them. Mir and the others all looked at each other nervous looks etched on their faces

"Where's _Kira_?" she repeated a little more forcefully than she had meant to be. For a few long and almost agonizing moments no one spoke a word until Kuzzey had managed to gather up enough courage to answer her question.

"We don't exactly know" Kuzzey said nervously and managed to be the first one to speak up "Black team and La Flaga are still looking for him and Nathan"

Flay adopted a horrified look on her face before she burst into tears. Tolle put a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her a little.

"Hey calm down he's probably fine and-" Tolle started trying to console the crying girl but Flay ignored him and got up off of the bed tears still streaming down her face. She stormed off towards the door and was halfway there before she felt a hand firmly grasp her shoulder Flay turned around and saw Sai looking at her with a concerned expression

"Flay what exactly is it that you intend on doing?" he asked. He almost regretted asking that when she turned her head and gave him a stern glare that said that attempting to stop whatever it was she was about to do would be a very bad idea.

"I'm going to go and look for Kira" she said her voice full of both determination and resolve as she almost casually Shrugged off Sai's hand with ease "With what?" asked Tolle looking at her incredulously "Everyone's gone and they've taken most of the armored cores and besides none of us know how to fly a Skygrasper"

"You're wrong, there's still one thing that I can pilot" she said determinedly marching off to the hanger with her friends from Heliopolis trailing close behind all the while they attempted to try and reason with the girl but she would have none of it.

"Flay please be reasonable. You've had what? A few hours of simulator time in the Beta at most you won't last long out there if you run into-" Mir started but before she could finish in her attempt to reason with the girl, Flay interjected.

"I don't care I'm finding Kira and I'm bringing him back!" she shouted and was almost loud enough that most of the ship had probably heard her.

Flay then broke off into a run to the hanger while the others tried to catch up with her. As she ran Flay heard her friends running behind her all the while they still tried their best to try and convince her that going out there would probably just bring more harm than good but Flay still paid them no heed and continued to run down towards the Archangel's hanger bay.

The moment that she reached the hanger she saw that one of the armored cores had already entered the hanger, it was the Lucifer and followed behind it were the Centaur and the White Knight and both of which were dragging the Strike behind them and into the hanger bay.

Flay feared the worst, her heart all but stopped when she saw the mobile suit, although for the most part it looked as though it had sustained very little damage but that didn't stop her from worrying about the pilot inside. The two machines cockpits opened and Joshua as well as commander Cross stepped out and headed down to the hanger.

The two soldiers then began to walk towards Flay and the others who were standing nearby she ran up to them worry etched on to her face "Well where's Kira is he alright?" she demanded. Before either of the two pilots could provide her an answer the Lucifer's cockpit opened.

"Someone get a god damned medical team in here now!" yelled Nathan who was helping the unconscious pilot of the Strike out of the Lucifer. Although Kira's friends were still some distance away from those who had just entered the hanger they could see that Kira's skin was now almost dark red in color and his hair looked completely drenched, as though his head had been shoved into a bucket of burning water

Upon hearing his subordinate yell for help Cross almost instantly sprang into action. The commander tore off his helmet and ran as fast as he could over to the intercom unit that was by one of the main entrances to the hanger and pushed down on the talk button "We need a medical team to the hanger now I repeat we need a medical team to the hanger right fucking now!" he yelled urgency completely laced into his voice.

Only a few seconds later medical personnel along with the ship's new medical officer, Carmen Leone ran in with a stretcher and they gently placed Kira on it before they moved the stretcher to the medical area while Flay began to follow them.

"He's going to be okay, right?" she demanded almost hysterical with worry and concern for the boy's. The ship's temporary chief medical officer turned to the girl who was tailing them to the infirmary. Carmen sympathized with Flay, she truly did but she didn't have an answer for the girl at the moment and she needed to be completely focused on the task at hand rather than comforting a girl who was probably on the verge of a panic attack.

"I can't tell you for certain until I can get a chance to examine him now please I need to focus" she said a little harshly as they reached their destination and the chief medical officer then closed the door behind her before she went to work on helping Kira.

Flay stayed right by the door in a fetal position tears streaming down her face, she had lost her father and she didn't want to lose Kira as well. He was a nice person and didn't deserve to die. She continued to cry for a few more minutes before she heard footsteps coming her way. She looked up and saw Li offering the crying girl some tissue paper. Flay took the piece of tissue while the Raven sat down next to her.

"You alright?" Li asked a little worried. Flay shook her head still crying "Well if it makes you feel any better I think he's going to be just fine" Li consoled.

Flay looked up at her and asked "How do you know?" Li then gave the girl a confident smile.

"Carmen Leone has a masters degree in medicine from a rather prestigious medical school called Mercy Institute and in case you were wondering where it is the place is located in Orb. Besides she has managed to patch up people who were in worse straights than how Kira is at the moment so just calm down and relax a bit"

The red haired girl seemed to be relieved at those words but then seemed a little confused "If she's got such a good degree then why does she need to work with Ravens?" Flay asked Li then just shrugged.

"Unfortunately the tuition from that kind of a college comes with one hell of a price tag attached and as near as I can figure she still hasn't paid off her tuition. She was looking for a medical position somewhere, anywhere in fact and since we were in the area looking for a medical officer for the Zeus we hired her since she fit the bill perfectly and she intends on staying until she's paid off her tuition which is still several years away I imagine." Li explained.

The two of them sat in silence for what felt like an eternity for Flay before Li spoke up "Flay now that I've answered your question, would it be alright if I ask you something?" she said. Flay gave her a look "Uh yeah sure" she said a little nervously not really knowing where the lieutenant was going with this. "Are you in love with Kira?" she asked.

Flay looked flabbergasted that Li had asked her that, she felt her face warm up and Li just gave a warm almost teasing smile "Oh come on now don't be shy, you can tell me" she said, Flay took a few moments to compose herself and she then answered. "I-I think so" she said softly and a little unsure.

Li still gave the red haired girl a kind look and said "Well don't worry about that I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way about you, now what you have to go and do is get him alone sometime and just tell him how you feel and I guarantee that you won't regret it" she assured.

Flay was about to reply to the advice that Li had just given when the door leading into the medical bay opened and Carmen stepped out of the medical bay and into the corridor where Li and Flay were waiting.

"He's alright he just has a high fever you can go and see him if you want but please be quiet he needs to rest for right now" she said softly.

Flay smiled "Thank you" she said before going in and she sat by the cot and placed her hand over Kira's in an attempt to provide him with some comfort.

Carmen looked at the concern that had been written all over Flay's face while she raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. Wasn't this girl the daughter of Vice Minister Allster? The asshole who was completely anti-Coordinator and had been rumored to be in a high ranking position in the Blue Cosmos? Carmen then turned over to Li with an accusing look, this had to be that woman's work. Li always did like to play matchmaker after all.

Li knew that look anywhere it was the "Just what exactly have you been up to recently?" look that Carmen gave her when she knew that someone was up to something. The Raven pilot instantly put her hands in front of her defensively "What?" she asked incredulously before she continued

"The only thing that I did was giver her a stern lecture about blind hatred and racism" she said. The pilot spoke the truth although she had made a great many more plans to try and get the two of them together if that little seed of doubt planted in Flay had failed to take root and sprout like it had so obviously done since it had been planted.

The chief medical officer however just continued to give Li the same accusatory look "And the fact that you thought that they might actually be cute together had nothing to do with it?" asked Carmen skepticism ran rampant through her voice while she raised an accusing eyebrow at her old friend, she knew exactly how it was this woman operated.

"No not at all!" she instantly tried to deny but knew that Carmen had her beat.

"Well maybe a little bit" admitted sheepishly however Carmen continued to giver her that same look "Okay a lot I admit it" she confessed.

Carmen sighed, she should have expected this from Li after all the woman loved to play matchmaker in her spare time. Hell she even tried to do it a few times with Nathan. It took Li almost three months before she realized that it was hopeless and it seemed that only a damn miracle would be able to help that kid move on. As Flay kept Kira company his friends eventually caught up and saw the scene before them.

"So is he going to be okay?" Tolle asked before Carmen shrugged "He just has a fever and judging by the temperatures that he was exposed to I'm quite amazed that your friend still among the living let alone just having a simple fever" said Carmen "But I'm keeping him in here overnight to make sure it was only a fever that he had while coming down to Earth"

Before anyone could say anything they heard a familiar voice coming from nearby.

"Are you going to handcuff him to the hospital bed like you do to me in order to keep him in here?" asked Nathan who was nonchalantly leaning on the wall by the door leading into the infirmary. Carmen looked at him and narrowed her eyes while Kira's friends watched the scene that was about to unfold in front of them.

"No but maybe I should do something like that with you right now young man!" she shouted while marching over to him and grabbing his shirt's collar before she went off on yet another rant.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was going through the atmosphere in an armored core if just one of it's armored plates had so much as a pin sized hole in it you'd have burned up and don't think that you can survive reentry in something that's burning up at several hundred degrees Fahrenheit kiddo. I swear sometimes I wonder if you do this sort of thing just to piss me off!" she ranted before continuing but Nathan had learned over the years that he had spent with the Skulls to just tune the lunatic part of Carmen out.

Everyone just watched the exchange and eventually Mir mustered the courage to say "Um, Ms. Leone do you think that you could take your ranting elsewhere? I mean Kira is trying to rest" she said bravely. Sai, Tolle and Kuzzey just looked at the brown haired girl as though she was mad.

Carmen turned from ranting looked over at the girl and her facial expression suddenly became much more calm and motherly "Oh right sorry about that but please just call me Carmen, Ms. Leone makes me feel old" she said.

Nathan tried to resist the urge he honestly and truly did but he felt that he just had to get at least on jab in on his surrogate big sister.

"Well technically you are older than us so you could be considered old" he remarked much to the shock of everyone in the room. Did this guy have some kind of a death wish or something? Everyone watched almost in complete fear and anticipation of what that woman planned on doing with Nathan who for some reason appeared calm, he must've been used to this or something. They watched as Carmen's eye twitched almost maniacally.

Finally she spoke "Okay kid, you asked for this so now you're going to get it!" she roared before storming right on over to where Nathan was standing and proceeded to drag him out of the room by the back of his shirt's collar while everyone looked on not knowing what to say to whatever it was that they had just witnessed.

* * *

><p>-PLANTs, Clyne residence-<p>

* * *

><p>Lacus was sitting down at her desk in her room writing some new music for an upcoming concert while several of her Haros bounced around the room. When she got back to the PLANTs she had practically been swarmed by a sea of reporters who wanted to know what had happened. Some questions were raised that made it sound as though she had been kidnapped by the Earth Forces so that they could use her as a type of bargaining chip to end the war on their own terms.<p>

Another was that they wanted to know how it was that she had been rescued and if her fiancé, Athrun had played any major part in it but he didn't come in like some knight in shining armor. However Lacuswasn't able to answer any of them because almost every half second more and more reporters came to demand her story on what had happened.

Thankfully the pink haired girl had managed to be spirited back to her home before things had grown too out of hand. For nearly eight hours after she had finally returned to her home there were still a large number of reporters camped outside of her home wanting to hear some sort of information that would boost their news channel's ratings.

However when they realized that they weren't going to get any kind of a comment out of Lacus for a while they all eventually left. After she got back home Lacus thought about the tradgedy that Nathan had suffered that turned a such a good person into a very cold individual. Currently she was trying to write a song that she believed would help show some support to Nathan's now all but destroyed dream.

She had all but finished writing the song when she heard someone knocking on the door. "Come in" she said pleasantly already knowing exactly who the visitor was. Her father opened the door and walked in before taking a seat on one of the chairs by her desk. When Lacus looked over at her father she saw that he had a very concerned expression on his face.

"Lacus I've been meaning to talk with you about what had happened on that Atlantic Federation warship the Archangel" he said calmly. Lacus tilted her head and wore a confused expression, she really didn't really see where it was her father was going with this. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Her father sighed "Did they hurt you in any way while you were there?" he asked, the report that commander Le Creuset had given him was a little more than just vague on what had happened which was somewhat unusual for the commander who always put every single detail into his reports. Lacus blinked somewhat surprised that her father had just asked her that. First it was Athrun and now it was her father.

"No, not at all they were very kind and understanding" she said not wanting to worry her father on how the ensign had all but turned her into a hostage situation before she continued "Would you like me to tell you what happened?" she asked and her father nodded and listened intently.

Lacus then began to tell her father from when she was rescued from the wreckage of the Silver Wind to when she was bunked in the same quarters as Nathan Fletcher. When her dad heard the name Nathan Fletcher he immediately got a worried expression on his face.

"Wait" he said "Nathan Fletcher as in the Red Eyed Devil, Nathan Fletcher?" he asked wondering how she was so calm about being in the same room with such a ruthless mercenary.

"Well yes" she said before continuing "He was very polite and very compassionate even though he acted very reserved. In fact I think that he's a very kind man, he just puts up a mask to shield himself from feeling loss again" she explained

Her father looked a little skeptical but Lacus spoke once again with a soft smile remembering what his old dream was, "Nathan told me that he had a dream that he shared with someone special to him once he said that they dreamed of a world without war. One where Coordinators and Naturals could one day put their differences aside and live together in peace" she said quoting the lieutenant's speech word for word.

Siegel Clyne smiled at that notion. It wasn't like his daughter to exaggerate when it came to something like this and he sincerely doubted that his daughter was that naïve, in fact despite her naïve attitude at times she had a very decent judge of character.

"Nathan seemed to be like a very kind individual and when as we talked, I felt as though we were almost like birds of a feather" she explained smiling as she thought about the red eyed mercenary.

"Why don't you tell me a bit more about him?" he asked kindly. Lacus then told her father all that she knew about the young man known as Nathan Fletcher but she left a few more tender and depressing parts of Nathan's life out of the picture trying to at least respect some of his privacy.

* * *

><p>-Archangel captain's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Mu, Raphael, captain Hackett, Natarle and Murrue were in the captain's office discussing their current situation.<p>

"Well we sure as hell couldn't have picked a worse spot to land" said Mu looking at their current location, North Africa a few hundred miles southwest of Cairo Egypt.

"Well it looks like we're smack dab in the middle of ZAFT controlled territory" said Mu. Murrue took a sip of coffee it tasted slightly bitter without any sugar in it but it was all that they had on hand at the moment.

"It wasn't as if we had much choice our only other alternatives were to leave both Kira and Nathan behind and I refuse to do something like that" said Murrue before taking another gulp of her black coffee.

"But we've got one big problem ma'am, the Strike hasn't been equipped with a scale system yet so it won't be of much use out here" said Natarle

"It's not all as bleak as the situation seems ensign" said Raphael before elaborating to the somewhat confused officers of the Archangel.

"Although the Strike may not be able to function as well in the sands of the desert our armored cores are more than capable of fighting in this kind of terrain and we have several of them plus the Skygraspers we were given by the late admiral Halburton and from what I've recently gathered we can attach both the Launcher and the sword packs to them which can increase their firepower plus we've got this ship's other defenses so we're far from helpless' he said with an air of confidence that almost bordered on arrogance with every word that came out of his mouth.

Despite Raphael's confidence Mu however didn't exactly share his views, "There's just one _small_ problem with that lieutenant, almost the entire continent is crawling with ZAFT and we have absolutely no allied support of any kind and if that wasn't enough we somehow have to travel all the way to Alaska" said Mu before Hackett gave out a chuckle.

"Don't worry lads we have at least one port in the storm" he said before pointing to a small island chain was almost a hundred miles off the coast of the Arabic sea but was rather close to the Red Sea which was near their current location with his cigar that was held in between his middle and index fingers.

"It's a small independent island chain called the Raven's Nest It's a neutral area which is under the protection of the St. Petersburg Convention if ZAFT or anyone under their employ makes an attempt to attack us while we're in the vicinity of the island chain they'll end up being charged with war crimes by both sides and the last thing that they need right now is that kind of bad publicity" said Hackett as a matter of factly but sighed and continued knowing that no one would like this.

"However as most of you are probably well aware there's one little catch with this, most of the islands there are almost completely overrun with less than honorable Raven groups, mercenaries, gangsters, thugs, assassins and other such scum and villainy however it will be much safer than being pursued by ZAFT forces and most of the guys that live there don't even come close to having the same amount of firepower that we're packing so if we stick to those islands after getting out of Africa it should buy us a little elbow room before we make a run for Orb and from there Alaska"

"And you think we should just walk into an island chain filled with gangsters and mercenaries who would more than likely just love to sell us out to ZAFT in exchange for some quick cash and that's even if they don't just kill us and steal this warship?" Natarle asked failing to see any logic in the captain's suggestion.

"We wouldn't necessarily have to land in the exact heart of the island ma'am we could just stick to the coast of those islands while we resupply and we'd probably be fine, most of the more powerful criminal elements are based in the center of each island while the coasts are just lined with a bunch of fisherman and a bunch of small pirate gangs who don't have any weapons that would pose much of a threat to this ship other than its paint job, besides it's not up to either of us liuetenant it's the good captain's decision" said Hackett gesturing to the Archangel's commanding officer

Murrue appeared into be in thought for a few moments before she spoke "Okay, as soon as we're out of Africa we head straight for the Raven's Nest and resupply before making a run JOSH-A" she said and although Natarle looked like she wanted to protest she bit her tongue knowing that her commanding officer's word was final.

* * *

><p>Eventually Kira's friends were forced to go back to their duties onboard the ship aside from Flay who had already completed her mostly light chores that her commanding officer had given her and she decided to stay with Kira until he had woken up.<p>

As she waited she noticed that the robotic bird that Kira always seemed to carry around was nearby occasionally chirping "Birdie" once every other minute and although this would get somewhat annoying after a while she concentrated on the sleeping boy she had grown increasingly fond of over the last several weeks. Kira eventually began to stir and then open his eyes to see the robotic bird that was standing on his chest.

The mechanical creation chirped "Birdie" once again before it extended its wings in welcome that Kira was finally awake. Kira around and saw Flay sitting next to him holding his hand tenderly. To him it looked as though she had been crying for quite some time.

Before he could ask what was wrong he remembered the shuttle and all of those people on it. Tears began to form and drip down Kira's face "I couldn't save them" he muttered with wide eyes. The broken sound of Kira's voice almost broke Flay's heart.

"That girl, everyone on that shuttle they died because of me" he said in a broken voice before Flay embraced him in a tight yet comforting hug that he quickly melted into.

"It's not your fault Kira, you did everything you could it's not your fault no one blames you" she assured. Kira seemed to calm down a bit more but noticed that Flay had begun to sob and he felt hot tears go through the near paper thin fabric of his hospital gown.

"Promise me you won't scare me like that again, I don't want to lose you" she said causing Kira's eyes to widen in near shock "I promise I won't" he said before Flay asked "Kira, c-can I stay here with you for a while, please?" she asked sounding like she was almost begging.

Kira couldn't really believe what it was he was hearing, he gave a soft smile and said "Sure, stay as long as you want" he said causing the red haired girl to smile as well.

Li watched the scene from the door, because the two teens were so distracted with each other they had absolutely no idea that she was there. The Raven smiled it turned out that all of her efforts had seemed to be going exactly the way she had been planning. Li eventually decided to leave the two teenagers alone for a little bit all the while she gave herself a mental pat on the back. It was only a matter of time before those two admitted their feelings for one another.

She walked down the Archangel's corridors and as she walked Li realized how much she missed being on Earth. The Zeus may have been designed for atmospheric descent but they had been doing jobs for both Orb and ZAFT in space for the last two months and although space was a beauty in of itself it still didn't come close to comparing to the vast beauty that Earth could provide.

Li decided to head for the main observation deck to get a few eyefuls of the seemingly endless desert around the ship before she headed off to bed.

* * *

><p>-Desert around the Archangel-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Andrew "Andy" Waltfield aka the Desert Tiger was looking through a pair of night vision binoculars while his second in command, Martin DaCosta stood behind him<p>

"Everyone's ready sir" he said as he handed commander Waltfield a cup of coffee who gladly and eagerly took it in his hand and gulped the whole thing down in a couple of seconds before he handed it back to his subordinate "Very good DaCosta but add less sugar to the cup next time" he joked causing DaCosta to chuckle "Don't worry I'll remember that sir" he said.

Waltfield headed back towards his main unit which was a couple dozen meters behind him. There were about eleven or twelve BuCUEs plus a large number of helicopters. The commander then stood in front of his soldiers "Our objective is to evaluate the enemy ship's battle strength and that of the mobile suit itself inside"

"Why can't we just wipe them out while we're at it?" one of the soldiers remarked causing the others to chuckle lightly but Andrew didn't seem to find it very amusing "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now I want all of you to keep this in mind, the Le Creuset team failed several times to eliminate them and they've been getting support from a Raven unit called the Black Skulls and I'm sure that you've all heard about them so I don't want any reckless moves out of any of you, now let fortune smile on us today" he said concluding his speech.

Every soldier that stood in front of the commander gave a crisp salute and said "Sir yes sir!" they all responded before they went to board their vehicles and mobile suits. Waltfield then got onto a jeep with his second in command "Well the coffee is good and the time is right, now let's go fight us a war"

To be continued


	12. Desert Dawn

Armored Seed

Chapter 12

Desert Dawn

disclaimer: i only own the Black Skulls and any other characters that i choose to create

* * *

><p>-Archangel Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Tolle was sleeping soundly in his bed, snoring lightly before he felt gentle hands shake him lightly "Come on Tolle wake up" ordered a voice that almost sounded just like his girlfriend's. however Tolle did not respond to caught up in his own dreams to notice.<p>

"Come on!" Mir's voice became much more firm and the shaking increased in intensity causing Tolle to slowly open his eyes. Upon waking up the boy managed to find the resolve to sit up a bit and once he did he began to yawn "Yeah? What do you need?" he mumbled rubbing his eye tiredly "It's your shift on the bridge. Now hurry up and get dressed!" Mir ordered with a stern look on her face.

Tolle slowly got up off of the cot and into his alliance uniform with Mir's help while she lectured on putting it on correctly. "I hope that you realize what lieutenant Badgiruel would be pissed if you ended up on the bridge looking like you had just gotten out of bed" her boyfriend turned to her with a grin on his face having finally managed to perk up a bit

"But I did just got out of bed" he remakred starting to wake up a bit more htan he felt earlier. Mir rolled her eyes at Tolle's antics and proceeded to drag him off to the bridge.

As they made their way there they saw Sai groggily walking out of his quarters and towards the bridge as well since the students shared the majority of their shifts on the bridge they normally walked the same route to get their together. As the three of them walked towards their assigned area of the ship Mir immidiately noticed that Flay wasn't with their group. She always walked with them for a little while before heading down to the hanger to start the simulator training that she always had to take.

"Say have either of you seen Flay or even Kira at all lately?" she asked having noticed that once Flay's duties had been finished she immidiatley headed to go and see Kira in the med lab last night. Upon hearing this Tolle picked up on what she was thinking as well and sly grin began to form on his face.

"Well I think I have a pretty good idea as to where they are right now" he remarked giving everyone a smug grin. Once he finished his sentence though both of them heard Sai give them both an annoyed groan as he did not want to have to listen to this crap so early in the morning.

"Do we have to get into this right now?" Sai asked rubbing his temples in frustration while Tolle turned around to face Sai and he then put his hands in front of himself defensively.

"What all that I'm saying is that Flay's been acting a little odd lately I mean I know that I wasn't the only one to see how she acted when Kira came back to the Archangel right? It looked like she was going to have a heart attack when she watched him being carted off to the infirmary" he said but this didn't seem to calm Sai down at all but it seemed to have the opposite effect on him but he managed to maintain control over himself before he did something stupid.

Sai was by no means an idiot, he knew full well that it was completely over between him and Flay but despite the fact that it was an arranged engagement he did develope a small crush on the red haired girl during their time on Heliopolis and it was a little more than difficult to just let go of her like that. And right now the last thing that he wanted to hear at the moment was how well her relationship with Kira was doing.

"Look can we talk about something else, anything?" he asked almost exasperatedly before Mir remembered what she saw in the hanger once when they were checking up on Kira and Flay earlier "I don't know about the rest of you but I've noticed that Nathan almost never goes to his own quarters at all after his shift is finished until late in the day" she said before Tolle looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Now that you mention it whenever I saw him when he was off duty he was always just working on that Armored Core of his down in the hanger although I think we all noticed that when that Lacus girl was onboard he did seem to spend quite a lot of time talking with her" said Tolle.

Mir and Sai looked at him for a second "What do you mean?" Mir asked, she hadn't really seen much of a change in the Raven's behavior when that had been on the ship.

"Well Nathan just seemed to be a lot more social to her than he's been with the rest of us and to be honest I think that he might actually have a girlfriend back wherever it is he calls home" said Tolle before Sai and Mir looked at each other for a moment and then shared a small laugh, it was a little more than hard to believe that a guy like Nathan Fletcher would have a girlfriend waiting for him somewhere.

Tolle adopted an annoyed look on his face "I'm serious, when Murdoch had us working in the hanger Kuzzey said that he caught a glimpse of Nathan looking at a picture of some really cute looking girl" he explained.

Both of them soon managed to stop laughing but looked like they were trying to restrain themselves from breaking out laughing even though Kuzzey wasn't one to exaggerate about those kinds of things "Still it's a little hard to believe that a girl would be in a romantic relationship with a guy like him" Sai said skeptically. Tolle shrugged "Well maybe his girlfriend's into the strong, silent, semi creepy type."

The group then continued on to the CIC and took their stations "You're late again kid" one of the members of the Black Skulls grumbled irritably, clearly the man wanted to go back to his bunk and get a nice long sleep. Tolle apologized before going over to man his station.

Kuzzey was already looking at the thermal detection unit at his station and saw that the long range thermal detection unit wasn't working thanks to the massive amount of N-Jammers that had been scattered all over the planet. However the short range ones managed to work just fine but its range was still very limited. They had also been getting a large amount of ghost readings throughout the area which didn't' help matters if the enemy decided to come after them they would have little to know way of being able to track their whereabouts.

It turned out that there used to be a large number of old abandoned petroleum mines in the area and if they had landed on any one of them and they would have been buried by the sands and to make matters worse they had no idea where any of them were. When Kuzzey found out about this he almost panicked at the thought of being buried alive and none of the others could blame him. Thankfully one of the other crewmen managed to calm him down by saying that if they had landed on one of the mines that they would have sank hours ago.

An alarm went off by Kuzzey's station and Natarle turned to look at the soldier "What's going on crewman?" she demanded. Kuzzey stuttered for a second before he managed to regain his composure.

"I'm getting several signals from what looks like laser designators" he said. Natarle immediately knew what this was, the enemy was going to commence an artillery strike right before sending in their main forces!

"Alert general quarters and activate Igelstellung antimissile batteries!" she ordered before seven missiles came over one of the sand dunes. The enemy missiles flew over them while the turrets on the Archangel fired at the enemy missiles and thankfully the hostile missiles were quickly shot down.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Crew Quarters a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>A few hours ago Kira had been discharged from the infirmary by Carmen Leone so he and Flay had decided to head back to the main personnel quarters where they continued to talk with each other about trivial things for a while before the combat alarm went off. Kira was about to get up and leave when Flay grabbed his arm. It was now or never for her and she knew that she had to tell him how she felt.<p>

"Flay what are you-" he started before the girl leaned in and kissed him almost passionately she eventually broke off the kiss and said "I love you"

Kira's eyes widened for a moment in surprise and he returned the gesture and kissed her back much to her surprise. After a second or two he broke it off and said "I love you too Flay". As much as Kira wanted to just stay with the red haired girl duty called and he had to get to the hanger.

"I promise that I'll be back" he swore while Flay made her own inner promise to be right there by his side the next time that he went out into combat.

* * *

><p>-Desert-<p>

* * *

><p>Adam Michaels was first and foremost a sniper and unlike the majority of the unit didn't go charging headlong into battle. Instead he headed for the best vantage point that overlooked the majority of the battlefield and picked off the enemy from there with his long range rifle. He quickly headed to the top of a nearby dune and got set up. Unlike most mobile suits which would have a difficult time traversing the dunes the armored cores managed to stay one step head by using the thrusters to hover over the sand so it would make them a more difficult target to hit.<p>

Unfortunately while his comrades could use this technique to engage in frontline combat with the enemy Joshua didn't have that kind of an advantage to exploit and instead he had to make absolutely sure that he wouldn't slip or fall off of the sand before opening fire on the enemy. Sometimes it would take a few minutes to get into position but this time he got a little lucky and got into a position that was upright and level enough so that he could see most of the battle.

Once he was finished with that Joshua activated the cloaking emitter and his Armored Core's signature vanished from thermal imaging and other detection equipment. Since he couldn't see some of the main battle because the BuCUEs had led most of the Skulls over one of the enormous sand dunes he could easily strike at the air units that were hovering some distance away from the archangel and they were all lined up like ducks at a carnival. He smiled as he aimed his sniper rifle at the closest target and pulled the trigger blowing a huge hole in one of the helicopters.

"Score one for me" he said grinning while the other helicopters scattered in different directions trying to avoid the sniper's next shot. Adam switched his aim to the next closest target "Bang" he muttered pulling the trigger and this time the shot hit the tail rotor of the combat chopper blowing it and most of the back half of the chopper to pieces causing it to fall out of the sky and to the ground.

He continued to pick off the helicopters until they finally decided to pull back out of the line of fire. Adam however was content to wait until someone showed up in his sights.

Li however was right in the thick of it with the rest of the Skulls opening fire with her shoulder mounted energy gun. Li's armored core was called the Fury it mainly focused on energy weapons. The machine was equipped with a shoulder mounted energy rifle that could be used for long range attacks while the left arm used a pulse rifle and unlike most beam or energy weapons it fired a steady stream of concentrated energy which was focused and was also used mainly as a long range weapon, the other weapon was called a beam repeater which was basically a smaller version of the beam rifle but could fire at a much higher rate. Unfortunately this caused its accuracy at long range to be heavily reduced.

She took aim at one of the nearby BuCUEs that were closing in on the Archangel with the repeater and fired seven shots, each one blasted straight through the BuCUE's armor and the final shot found its way into the main power unit of the machine causing the mobile suit's power supply to overload which destroyed the entire mobile suit with a spectacular explosion that almost completely vaporized the BuCUE an the pilot inside the mobile suit.

Li took a glance at the others that were on the battlefield and saw that they were doing fairly well against the enemy all things considered but it was still a difficult fight because their thrusters could only be pushed so far before they overheated, in space they could use them for much longer periods of time but on earth it was much more difficult which meant that their main strategy of using the thrusters to hover over the sand constantly while they fought was near impossible due to the heat buildup.

Nathan opened fire with his SMG at one of the closer BuCUEs and the 90mm rounds punched through the head of the mobile suit. Even though it failed to go out the other side but the damage was done anyway the pilot had been completely ripped to shreds and the now useless wolf like mobile suit crashed into the sand. Nathan then spotted four attack helicopters and he switched to his shoulder mounted missile launchers and after a few seconds of waiting for the Lucifer's targeting system to lock on he opened fire showering the choppers in a hail of mid range missiles sending burning wreckage down into the sands below.

Cross however charged at the nearest BuCUE with his energy blade activated and sliced the wolf like machine's front legs off when it attempted to jump over him which then sent the machine into the sand beingrendered totally useless for the . Before he could land and attempt to try and kill another enemy. The back of his armored core was hit a few times by several missiles from the ZAFT attack helicopters which through the machine off balance.

"Shit!" he said as his AC went face first into the sand.

The commander of Black team managed to turn his AC around but before he could properly aim at the helicopters several loud booms echoed throughout the area and each and every one of the helicopters went up in a fiery explosion. The White Knight's head turned and saw the Panzer with smoke coming out of the barrels from it's shoulder mounted gatling cannons.

"Your guardian angel has you covered pal" said Drake while Cross laughed.

"I wouldn't call you an angel Drake but I'll take whatever I can get!" he laughed while Drake let out a "meh" sound "Either way you owe me a beer" he said before taking aim at another group of helicopters and opening fire "Tell you what, the next time I get the chance I'll get you a malt liquor. How does that sound?"

Drake opened fire on a BuCUE sending it and the pilot straight into afterlife and grinned "You know I'm gonna hold you to that one boss man!"

* * *

><p>Commander Waltfield looked at the Archangel waiting for it to release it's main weapon the Strike. Since he knew that the Raven pilots would more than likely be sent out first he kept part of his BuCUEs back in reserve in case that scenario occurred. And if the Strike didn't launch soon then he'd have to call off the attack, he was beginning to lose too many soldiers and pilots to the Black Skulls.<p>

After his primary force distracted the Raven pilots he'd wait until the Strike appeared before he sent in the reserves after the Strike. At last his patience had rewarded him and the Strike was launched out of the Archangel.

Andrew turned to his second in command "DaCosta have the second team move in to engage the Strike" he ordered while his subordinate did as he was told and gave team two their orders.

Kira had already just gotten out of the Archangel with the Strike Launcher package attached. Unfortunately this also increased the weight of the already heavy machine which made it a little more than awkward to move around in combat when not using the Strike's thrusters. Kira was about to head off to the main battle but was cut off by about five or six BuCUEs that came at him from all sides.

The ones that were equipped with the hind mounted missile launchers struck first. The missiles that hit the Gundam mainly impacted the Strike's PS armor which as a result didn't do much damage to the machine but the explosion knocked the Strike off balance and sent Kira falling back first into the sand.

The Strike righted itself a little but it was still lying against one of the sand dunes. Kira opened fire with the Agni cannon but due to the speed that the BuCUEs were moving at he couldn't get a clean shot out at them. He then activated the Strike's thrusters and soared into the air firing the Agni cannon as he flew upwards for a few seconds.

The BuCUEs however didn't just stand idle though while their enemy fired seemingly at random. The ones that weren't avoiding the shots from the oversized antis hip cannon returned fire with their rail guns and missile launchers which either missed or didn't do much damage to the Strike's PS armor.

Once Kira got back down the sand he attempted to reacquire the targets but of course the BuCUEs managed to evade each shot almost perfectly. After they had dodged the clumsy and ill aimed shots from the Agni cannon Kira had already realized that he needed to adjust the Strike's OS for use in the sand. He initiated the same maneuver that he had done only a few seconds ago and once again launched into the sky much to the ZAFT forces confusion, he was doing the same maneuver over again even though it had proven almost pointless the last time.

While there he took the few seconds of time to adjust the operating system to compensate for sand while fighting in a desert environment. The instant that the Strike hit the ground it moved as though it was designed for use in the environment rather than it just stumbling around like a drunk Irishman during Oktoberfest.

One of the nearby BuCUEs had already begun to close in the distance between it and the Gundam intending on striking with two point blank shots from its back mounted rail cannons. However the Strike used the butt of the Agni cannon as a bludgeoning weapon and knocked the BuCUE to the desert sands below. Kira put the Strike's leg onto the neck of the BuCUE and fired off with the shoulder and head mounted CIWs shredding the head and the cockpit to pieces.

After he had finished off the BuCUE he noticed that the other two were closing in on him, fast. He opened fire on one of them with the Agni cannon this time it finally hit the wolf like mobile suit and completely obliterated it. The other one seemed to be trying to get closer but Kira managed to use the Strike's knee and sent it sprawling onto its back. Kira took aim and fired the cannon once again eliminating the last of the BuCUEs that were attacking him.

He heard several loud cracking noises from above him and saw several artillery shells had been launched at the Archangel. Several of the artillery shells hit the ship that had just begun to take off. He then noticed that one of the Skygraspers had been launched and was heading for where the artillery fire had originated from.

The next volley of artillery fire came at the Archangel and as it did time seemed to slow down as a purple seed spun in front of Kira and then exploded. Kira activated the thrusters and jumped upwards before opening fire with the Agni cannon and he managed to shoot down each and every single artillery shell before it could hit the Archangel. Kira then exited SEED mode and dropped back down to the desert floor.

The crew of the ship looked at the scene in front of them with disbelief "H-how in the hell did that kid manage to shoot down artillery shells?" one of the Zeus Crewmen who had been tasked with helping the Archangel's bridge asked

Raphael however looked on at the scene and found it to be quite impressive which was rather rare and whistled "If I had known that Kira had possessed this kind of piloting skill I would have asked captain Hackett to offer him a position in the Black Skulls" he said wondering if the kid would like a job in their little organization but that was considerably unlikely though.

"Don't relax just yet!" said one of the CIC members who was monitoring the energy levels of the machines that were out fighting "The Strike's energy is dangerously low. We're going to need to end this battle soon or we're all screwed"

* * *

><p>-Desert-<p>

* * *

><p>After taking out the volley of artillery Kira managed to regroup with the rest of Black team and they were now completely surrounded by the remaining BuCUEs and attack helicopters. Drake took a glance a this ammo counter and silently cursed "Uh, guys I never thought I'd be saying this but, I'm almost completely out of ammo" he said his head downcast<p>

"The Strike's low on energy I don't I can destroy them all with just the Agni cannon" said Kira before everyone else fighting on the side of the Archangel gave similar statements.

Before the BuCUEs and attack helicopters could open fire there a rocket sped past the ACs as well as the Strike and hit one of the helicopters causing it to go up in an inferno followed by another group of rockets some of which hit the vehicles and mobile suits but however most didn't after they saw one of their comrades go down "What the hell was that?" demanded Li watching the ZAFT helicopter go down in flames

"Who gives a shit just use this opportunity to take out those damn BuCUEs!" ordered Cross before the pilots did so and cut down each of the ZAFT mobile suits with a hail of gun, beam and rocket fire from their weapons. Once the literal hailstorm of weaponry had ended them, the Archangel and a group of jeeps armed with rocket pod launchers were all that were left standing.

'_Must be Desert Dawn'_ thought Andrew rather bitterly. As of late a local resistance movement in the area known as Desert Dawn had been causing some moderate annoyances for the ZAFT commander and now they had just interfered with one of his personal operations.

"Uh sir what do we do now?" asked DaCosta while Andrew turned around and headed back to his jeep "Simple order all of our remaining forces to pull back, we've already got what it was we came out here for" he said before DaCosta relayed the orders into his headset and joined the commander.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Almost immediately after the jeeps with the rocket launchers had shown up the Black Skulls and the Strike had counterattacked eliminating most of the enemy units and although the enemy pilots were going to try and return the favor the rest received Waltfield's order to retreat. The ZAFT forces began to fall back and the opposing pilots let them be, they didn't have the energy or ammunition to pursue and eliminate them for now.<p>

"Captain I just received a message from commander La Flaga!" said Mir before retelling what Mu had just told her "I've reached the enemy command ship but I'm not going to engage it's the Lesseps, I'm now returning to the Archangel"

Murrue's eyes widened. They couldn't have landed in a more dangerous location.

"I was afraid of this" she said worriedly "It's the Desert Tiger" however captain Hackett who recently arrived on the bridge to observe the battle heard Murrue's statement and if everyone didn't know better they'd say that he looked like he was excited about going up against one of ZAFT's best ground commanders. Natarle turned and looked at the captain expression before she asked "What's seems to be so interesting captain Hackett?"

Captain Nigel Hackett was broken out of his thoughts by the lieutenant "Oh I'm sorry it's just that I've always wanted to meet the good Desert Tiger on the field of battle" he said sounding almost excited which unnerved some of the CIC personnel. However the captain changed the subject when he sensed that everyone who didn't' know him personally was getting a little unnerved hearing him talk about facing the Desert Tiger in combat.

"Well now, what do you say about these folks here?" he asked "They look like they're resistance fighters" said Murrue before Natarle butted in "Yes but do you think that they're actually friendly captain?" she asked

Murrue thought about it for a moment before getting off her seat and she walked towards the elevator "Well they did just help us out back there and if they were hostile I don't think that they'd be helping us right now" she stated while Mu looked at Murrue a little skeptically but decided that it may help if he joined her "Very well then I'll join you then captain" he said walking over to Murrue as she boarded the elevator.

* * *

><p>-Desert outside of the Archangel-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan had already exited his now docked armored core back outside to meet the resistance fighters. As he approached them he heard whispers but he ignored the gossip that was more than likely being exchanged between the resistance fighters. The leader stepped forward, he was a large bearded man and he looked like he was suppressing a smile.<p>

"Well I never expected to meet the Angel of Mercy again" he said while Nathan adopted a slightly confused expression on his face. He never really anticipated someone to call him by that little nickname again. However others had a more verbal response to what the leader had said. The other resistance fighters whispered amongst themselves for a few minutes before a blond haired girl who was standing right next to the resistance leader looked confused at his statement.

"Sahib what are you talking about that guy's called the Red Eyed Devil and for obvious reasons!" she said with contempt before Nathan's confused expression became a stoic look once again and he was about to respond the girl's comment when he heard two sets of footsteps in the sands behind him. Nathan somehow already knew that it was the captain and more than likely Mu La Flaga.

In recent days those two had almost been inseparable and Nathan had also heard that Drake and Adam had started setting up yet another betting pool that involved how long it would take for those two to get into bed although they were trying to keep it under wraps so that they wouldn't attract any kind of trouble from the captain or one of their ace pilots.

"I'm captain Murrue Ramius of the Archangel, Eighth Fleet" said Murrue introducing herself while giving the resistance fighters a respectful salute while Mu did likewise "Commander Mu La Flaga also Eighth Fleet"

Sahib raised an eyebrow at this he hadn't expected that anyone from the Eighth Fleet had survived the attack by Rau Le Creuset "I'd thought that the Eighth Fleet was completely wiped out" the blond haired girl next to him with a hint of anger to her voice.

Murrue and Mu looked slightly saddened at this while Nathan stayed stoic "Most of them are KIA thanks to Rau Le Creuset but we managed to get down here to Earth this ship is called the Archangel and this is the Earth Forces mobile suit-" Murrue started but was cut off by the blond haired girl "The Strike it was built with help form Orb" she said her voice dripping with venom.

"Well you're pretty well informed" remarked La Flaga. Nathan took another glance at the girl and finally realized where he had seen her before. The Raven operator turned to Sahib.

"I have a question for you mister Sahib, why is the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative, Uzumi Attha hanging out with a bunch of resistance fighters?" Nathan asked before most of the others in the group looked somewhat shocked at that statement they weren't expecting anyone to know who Cagalli was.

Cagalli had found herself looked somewhat startled. She hadn't expected someone to figure out who she was so quickly. "H-how did you know that?" she sputtered out not believing what she was hearing. Nathan rolled his eyes at her "Princess" he said earning a heated glare from Cagalli and several nervous looks from the other resistance fighters, they knew how temperamental Cagalli could be.

Nathan however ignored them and continued "It wasn't that hard to deduce I've lived on Orb for the majority of my life, do you really find it hard to believe that I haven't heard of you or seen your face on the news a few times?" he asked somewhat disinterested.

The Archangel's captain decided that it would be better if they got back to the subject at hand despite her curiosity as to what such a prominent figure in Orb's government was doing with a bunch of rebels.

"So can we count on your full cooperation?" Murrue asked before Sahib smirked "Perhaps we can talk after you've lowered your weapons" he said before looking up at the Strike and all of the ACs that were standing around them. At first Murrue hesitated but decided that it might be in her better interest if they were to cooperate with them.

"Fine, Black Team, Ensign Yamato exit your units now" she ordered.

Kira and the others who were still in their armored cores quickly exited their machines. Once Kira hit the ground and removed his helmet however it seemed that Cagalli adopted a surprised expression that quickly faded into anger. Before anyone could do anything she marched right over to him and grabbed his pilot suit by the collar and demanded to know why he was piloting the Strike.

When Kira didn't respond when she wanted him to she attempted to punch him only to have her fist easily intercepted by the boy. Kira had finally realized who it was that was trying to punch him.

"Hey you're that person I met back at Heliopolis" he said but Cagalli didn't seem to be listening "Let go you ass!" she roared swinging her other fist at him and it intercepted his face this time and knocked her out of Kira's grip. Cagalli then stormed off while the Black Skulls looked on.

"Is she having her time of the month already?" Drake remarked with a raised eyebrow while everyone else face palmed in frustration at the Raven pilot's antics.

* * *

><p>-Gibraltar base-<p>

* * *

><p>Once Yzak and Dearka had landed on Earth they had been picked up by ZAFT occupation forces that were operating in the desert. Now they were in the conference room awaiting a call from commander Rau Le Creuset. It took only a few minutes but Rau's masked face finally appeared on the screen<p>

"I'm pleased to see that the two of you managed to survive reentry" he said before continuing "However I won't be able to meet up with you for some time now" he said while Dearka just sighed lightly "So we're basically signing up with the occupation forces until you show up?" he asked.

Rau's expression didn't change "Putting it simply yes that is exactly what you're going to be doing. And as for the Archangel it unfortunately managed to escape the Eighth Fleet's destruction and land successfully on the Earth, however it veered off course in order to rescue the Strike, it should be somewhere in the area that you're currently in"

Dearka's face got a confident grin "So basically our orders are to stay with the occupation forces but to destroy the Archangel and the Strike if we can?" he asked

"Yes however just the two of you are insufficient" said commander Le Creuset. Yzak looked like he was about to explode with rage at the commander's veiled suggestion that they were incompetent but before he could say anything Rau Le Creuset raised a hand indicating that he wasn't finished

"I'm not trying to insult either of you all that I'm saying is that if our entire team couldn't destroy that ship and its mercenary escorts it's unlikely that the two of you by yourselves will fare much better. However I've recently hired a few experts that should be able to assist you in this endeavor treat them with respect even though they might be a little rough around the edges" he ordered "Yes sir!" the two saluted and said in unison before the transmission cut out.

"Great so he's basically telling us to just crawl around on the ground with the occupation forces like some animal and I don't even want to think about what kind of manner of mercenaries that the guy hired" Dearka whined

Yzak however ignored his teammate and instead reached behind his head and began to remove the bandages on his face. Dearka saw this and was about to try and stop him but was stopped by the hot headed pilot

"Yzak what do you think you're you doing? The doctors said that if you remove your bandages now that wound's gonna scar!" he exclaimed but Yzak had already finished removing the bandages revealing scar that stretched almost from the left side of his forehead all the way down to the right cheek.

"I don't care. Right now I'm keeping this scar until we've destroyed both the Archangel and the Strike" he said fury laced in every word when he spoke.

To be continued


	13. Blind Vengeance

Armored Seed

chapter 13

Blind vengeance

Disclaimer: i only own the Black Skulls along with the other characters that i personally create

* * *

><p>The Desert Dawn rebels led the Archangel to a wide canyon that easily hid the ship form any possible ZAFT scouting parties. Sahib and Cagalli walked into the interior of the base and saw supply crates from Eurasia, the Atlantic Federation and a large number that were of ZAFT origin.<p>

They saw the rebels working tirelessly as they went about doing jobs that ranged from organizing weapons and ammunition to maintaining their vehicles. Kira and the others watched as the commanding officers of the Archangel went into the command section of the rebel's makeshift base.

Everyone else who was part of the Archangel's crew helped outside trying to put as much camo netting that they could possibly find over the Archangel but due to the fact that the rebels only had a few pieces of the camo netting it only managed to cover certain spots of the ship and it would still be relatively easy to spot for air units. As the group worked almost tirelessly both Nathan and Kira began to develop a sense of respect towards the resistance fighters.

True they were going up against mobile suits with only a handful of jeeps and small arms which in practice could easily be compared to trying to tear down a brick wall with sticks and a few pebbles. But the fact that they weren't going to give up no matter how much the odds were stacked against them was something that everyone onboard the Archangel had found to be quite admirable. After several hours of working Kira and the others were finally let off the hook and were allowed to take a break.

Kira was currently sitting down on one of the makeshift tables that had been constructed to act as a type of outdoor cafeteria and had just gotten his food which mostly consisted from canned goods which was pretty much the same as the food that the Archangel had in its kitchens. He was about to start eating when Flay came over and sat down next to him. This caused Kira to grow a bit happier than he had been feeling earlier "Hi Flay" he said smiling before she greeted him as well "So how has the combat simulator in the Beta been going?" he asked. Flay gave him a smile.

"Well Nathan said that if I continue at the rate I'm going I should be ready for actual combat in about a couple of weeks" she answered somewhat proud of her progress with the Beta. Kira adopted a slightly nervous and concerned expression.

Flay tilted her head in curiosity. "What's wrong?" she asked before Kira exhaled a breath that he had been holding in "I don't know what to say to that I mean I don't want you to put you're life in even more danger than it already is" he said.

Flay sighed exasperatedly. People had started doing this ever since she asked Nathan to train her how to pilot an armored core "Kira I'm not some fragile doll, I'm learning how to defend myself" she said but Kira put his hands out in front of him defensively.

"T-that's not what I meant, all that I'm saying is that I don't think I could handle losing you" he explained nervously. "I feel the same way Kira, whenever you go out there it's hard for me to just sit there waiting for you and hope you come back" she said giving her boyfriend a warm smile. They were about to continue talking with each other when Tolle and Mir sat down nearby

"So how are our two lovebirds doing? Anything interesting going on after a hard days work in the hanger?" Tolle remarked causing Kira and Flay to blush at the implications that Tolle was making.

"Tolle, stop teasing them it's not their fault that they make a very cute couple" Mir scolded causing the two blush even more than they already were . Kira who was a little more than eager to change the subject noticed that Sai and Kuzzey weren't around.

"So where are Sai and Kuzzey?" he asked before Mir looked at Kira "Oh they're getting their food right now and they're headed over here" she explained. Despite Kira's attempt at changing the subject Tolle still had one last joke to pull on them. It was only a rumor that he had heard from Li but he wanted to see what their reactions to this sort of news would be like.

"You know I had also heard that Drake and Adam had put together another betting pool almost two weeks ago, it was on when you two would finally hook up" this caused Kira to come dangerously close to choking on the food he was eating while Flay's mouth went agape at what she had just heard.

"They did _WHAT_?" Flay demanded in a high pitched scream while Kira managed to finally swallow his food and he began to start coughing do to some of the food going down the wrong pipe. Not being able to take the hilarity of the scene that was going on in front of him, Tolle had started laughing so hard that he almost looked as though he was going to fall off his seat and roll around the floor. Even Mir despite her better judgment started to giggle at the scene that was presented before her.

Flay quickly regained her composure despite some of her embarrassment and said "You guys are just…ugh!" she scowled slightly embarrassed before dragging the still lightly coughing Kira off somewhere so they could eat privately. She knew that they were only joking around with them but Flay still found it to be annoying.

After all Flay didn't joke around when it came to Mir and Tolle's relationship but maybe it would be fun to get a little bit of payback later so she kept some of her options open while she took Kira over someplace else. By the time Kuzzey and Sai had arrived at the table Flay and Kira were long gone "Hey where's Kira and Flay?" Kuzzey asked while looking confused at the still laughing pair before them.

The couple then headed for a shadier area near the Strike to try and get finish their food in peace and quiet but before they begin to finish start eating their remaining food, Kira heard footsteps coming behind the two of them. He turned and saw that same girl from earlier and if what Cross had told them was true she was Orb's Chief Representative Uzumi Attha's daughter, Cagalli Attha. Flay looked at the girl as neutrally as she could but it was obvious that the red haired girl didn't seem to like her due to the fact that she had punched Kira.

"Oh, hi again" said Kira calmly trying to make sure that the situation didn't end up spiraling out of control. Cagalli let out a bated breath.

"I'd like to say that I'm sorry for attacking you earlier it was a spur of the moment kind of thing" she said noticing the look that Flay was giving her and she noticed that the red haired girl was more than likely Kira's girlfriend. "It's okay it was kind of a crazy situation. My name is Kira Yamato and this is my girlfriend Flay Allster" he said confirming Cagalli's suspicions.

"A pleasure" said Flay attempting to do her best to try and sound friendlier than she felt towards the girl.

"I'm Cagalli Yula" she said "Nice to meet you Cagalli" said Kira while Cagalli sat down on a rock that was nearby "So why exactly did you attack Kira?" Flay asked still not really trusting the tomboy princess. "Back on Heliopolis Kira got me into one of the last remaining shelters but it was close to becoming full they could only take one of us so he pushed me in and I've been wondering what happened to him ever since and now I find out that he's fighting with the _Earth Forces_" she explained saying "Earth Forces" like it was some kind of poison.

"Well a lot of complicated things have happened since then" Kira explained while Flay looked at Cagalli this time with curiosity not anger "Just out of curiosity why exactly is the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative doing out here?" she inquired.

"It's complicated and at the moment it's none of your business" said Cagalli and her tone suggested that the two of them should leave it at that.

* * *

><p>-Gibraltar base-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Charles Lockhart, the leader of the Hydra Raven unit walked into the briefing room along with the rest of his unit. Lockhart was a man of average height who had slicked back blond hair and emerald green eyes. To his left was his second in command Hauptman Faulkner a tall burly man with an deep and slightly raspy voice that easily intimidated others. Faulkner was something like a faithful war hound of Lockhart's and of course the man would obey any of his orders no matter how completely insane or morally repugnant.<p>

On his right was another one of his subordinates, Katina Massey. Katrina was the only female on the Hydra team and had she the body of a supermodel. She had tanned skin and long purple hair that almost reached her waist. She was intelligent as she was beautiful although most people didn't really seem to be able to spot her intelligence since she acted like a complete ditz as well as a harlot every second of the day.

And directly behind Lockhart was the fourth member of the team Harold O'Connor. O'Connor was a very slim man with short light brown hair and an almost crazed look in his hazel colored eyes. He was the unhinged loner of their little band and was an absolute drug addict. The mercenary was completely addicted to illegal combat stimulants, O'Connor mainly used the drugs to "Fully experience the bliss of war" anyone that had met the man knew almost immediately that the guy was a near complete psychopath who was willing to do almost anything to get a fix.

The severity of Harold's little condition was so extreme that he needed near constant injections on the battlefield and at least one injection every ten hours when he was off of the field of battle. Lockhart entered the conference room along with the rest of his cronies and sat down his feet on the table in a lounging position while he waited for their "Allies" to arrive. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine what he was going to do with all of the money that he was going to be making out of this little contract.

When the notorious ZAFT commander Rau Le Creuset had contacted him to say that Lockhart was both shocked and amazed would be a gross understatement. Never in Lockhart's life did he expect one of the most distinguished commanders in ZAFT's relatively short history to call him up and offer a guy like _him_ a job.

Normally most big time superpowers and their militaries did their absolute best to try and refrain from openly hiring Lockhart and his men because of their unpredictable behavior on and off the field of battle. One time a few years ago when the Hydras were fighting for a rebel group in South America they were offered a much better deal by the Atlantic Federation than the rebels could ever hope to top. This resulted with him and his team subsequently changing sides in the conflict and proceeding to completely annihilate the South American resistance forces down to the last man.

However for them it wasn't personal or for some petty reason, they were simply conducting business matters and the opposing group had offered him much more money than the rebels ever could. But his unit doing a double cross like that was unlikely to happen here. Rau Le Creuset had offered Lockhart so much money that it was extremely doubtful that the Atlantic Federation or the Eurasians could manage to top an amount of that size.

Sure eventually they might scrape up enough eventually but not soon enough for Lockhart's liking. Besides it's not as though he'd betray the masked commander under any circumstances even if someone offered him a hundred million to do so. Lockhart knew full well of Rau Le Creuset's reputation and would rather not be in that man's sights if he could avoid it.

The escorts of his targets were the Black Skulls who had been Lockhart's enemies for the past several years due to their annoying habit of interfering with whatever mission that he went on. For a guy like him it was nearly a laughably ironic situation. A mercenary/Raven unit with a sense of both honor and dignity to them. Commander Lockhart was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the door suddenly slide open and the Hydras looked up from what they were doing and saw a man in a ZAFT military uniform had walked into the room and gave them all a sharp salute.

"I'm sorry but commander Waltfield is currently out in the field right now but he told me to inform you that he'll be back within twenty four to forty eight hours" Lockhart suppressed a groan. This was irritating but at least he was still going to get paid for his troubles and besides he could use the break anyways.

However others took a more verbal approach, Harold leapt off the chair he was sitting on and shouted angrily "What the hell man we finally get here and now we have to wait even longer? Fuck that noise, I say that we-" but was cut off by Katrina "Hey druggie just shut the fuck up for a little bit you're giving me a headache" Katrina ordered while she massaged her temples trying to fend off the headache that the drug addicted pilot was giving her.

Harold turned to his squad mate and growled "Screw you bitch now where the hell is this Waltfield guy I'm going to tear him a new one for making me wait for combat!" he yelled. Lockhart gave an annoyed glance at Faulkner who understood the message his superior had given him instantly.

The tall muscle bound man stood up and said "Be quiet both of you or I'll cut out both of your tongues!" he ordered and the two other pilots stopped arguing amongst themselves immediately and returned to their seats quietly. Whenever Faulkner gave somebody a threat, the man was much more than prepared to follow through with it. An instance of this was when they had been assigned to help support an Earth Forces unit in holding the line in South America. One of the soldiers wouldn't stop complaining about the humidity and the heat of the area. Faulkner threatened to break his arm if he continued to whine about the conditions that they were forced to be fighting in.

However the soldier paid the hulking man no mind thinking that the man had been bluffing and continued to bitch and moan about the conditions that they were in and unfortunately as a result his arm was broken in several areas and the soldier ended up being shipped back to a military hospital so that the wounds he sustained could be properly treated.

The man that had just given them the bad news cleared his throat "Commander Waltfield had also asked me to assign you to guest quarters. If you'll come this way please" he said very calmly despite the fact that there was just a heated argument only a few seconds earlier.

* * *

><p>-Desert Dawn main base-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Cross yawned, he had been out almost all day helping chief Murdoch repair and rearm the armored cores and both of the Skygraspers. Now he was heading back to the Archangel to get some much needed sleep. Most of the other members of the group seemed to be thinking the same way. Kira and his friends were probably already on the ship by now. Knowing Nathan he was probably up working on the Lucifer's energy output or something similar.<p>

Sometimes it seemed as though Nathan could be even more of a workaholic than he was at times. The leader of Black team was just about to turn in for the night when he heard what sounded like a loud whistle blowing. Cross sighed knowing that they'd probably be in for some sort of fight here again soon. He ran over to Sahib and asked what was going on.

"There's fire coming from Tassil and our lookouts say that that they saw BuCUEs and attack helicopters in the distance" the bearded man explained. Although the leader of desert dawn tried to put up a brave front Cross could easily tell that the man was clearly worried about those who lived in the nearby village. '_Damn sounds like retaliation for their interference with the Tiger's operations'_ thought Cross and apparently Nathan and Mu who were standing nearby were having similar thoughts as well. Captain Murrue turned to them with her commander face on "Mu, Nathan, Kira, Cross I want you to go with them and assist the village. I'll have Carmen and doctor Sanders meet you there along with some men! Now go!" she ordered before the four of them ran for the hanger bay.

While the pilots headed to their machines Cagalli had already grabbed an RPG along with some ammunition for it. She was going to head for the same jeep as Sahib but Ahmed. Ahmed was a local boy from the same village that was now on fire. He was one of the junior members of Desert Dawn having only joined the resistance movement only a few months ago while the others had been fighting for a many number of years against both the Eurasian and Atlantic Federation militaries but much more recently ZAFT.

"Need a ride" the boy asked with a wide grin on his face. Cagalli jumped into the halftrack and strapped herself in "Thanks for the ride Ahmed" she said smiling. This caused the boy's face to turn scarlet.

Ever since Cagalli had joined their group Ahmed had an obvious and easily recognizable crush on the girl. And although everyone in Desert Dawn knew about this Cagalli was the only one who remained totally oblivious to it but never the less Cagalli still considered the boy a very good friend. They all pushed their vehicles to go as quickly as they could in the direction of the small town of Tassil hoping that they weren't going to a town of filled with nothing but a bunch of corpses.

When Nathan got into the hanger of the Archangel he saw Flay already geared up and ready for combat. The red eyed pilot sighed he should have expected this from her.

"Flay what are you doing here? You have at least another two or three days worth of simulator time" he yelled. Flay turned to him with a determined expression on her face.

"I'm going out there Nathan I'm going to help everyone!" she exclaimed while Kira just stood there, looking right at both of them with an unreadable expression on his face as though he was unsure as to what he should say to either of them.

Nathan thought about it for a moment. Flay was doing much better in the simulators and she did need her own bit of real time experience sometime soon. He sighed knowing that she probably wasn't going to be persuaded out of this one even if he threatened to revoke her new found pilot in training status.

"Fine but you stick with Kira and both of you follow any orders that Cross, Mu or I give to the letter, if we tell you to leave the battle you will leave, understood" he ordered. Flay smiled a little before nodding at least he was finally giving her a chance. She then climbed into the Beta and the other two pilots got into their own machines. The group slowly made their way for the launching catapult.

* * *

><p>-Tassel-<p>

* * *

><p>Mu was flying his Skygrasper over the still burning ruins of the town once known as Tassel. Buildings were on fire and slowly collapsed where they once stood because the main support beams that kept the makeshift structures up had all but burned away in the flames.<p>

"The situation here is pretty bad" Mu said into his radio as he continued to observe at the burning village from the cockpit of his Skygrasper "There's nothing but complete destruction"

Murrue heard every single word that Mu had just reported and looked saddened by the news. She had heard of the Desert Tiger before and most of the time the man was described as a rather decent individual who never spilled civilian blood on purpose. It would appear that those rumors of him were completely false.

The Archangel's captain then perked up a little when she heard Mu's next report "I've got eyes on a large number of civilians!" he said with a hint of happiness to his voice "Survivors?" she asked her voice filled with hope.

"No it looks more like the whole damn town is down there" he said immensely relieved before continuing "I'm going in for a closer look"

Mu passed the large group civilians before he engaged the Skygrasper's VTOL feature and slowly started to descend close to the crowd of people. By the time he had finished landing the jeeps that were carrying the Desert Dawn rebels had already arrived at the town and the men got out of their vehicles and began to reunite with their loved ones havig thought that they had been killed.

The Hawk of Endymion heard several noises nearby and turned to check the source. The White knight along with the Lucifer, Strike and Beta were all flying towards them the latter of which was wavering slightly because of Flay's inexperience piloting outside of a simulator which could be much more difficult. But at least the red haired girl had managed to land decently and far away from the civilians so that she wouldn't crush them by accident.

Nathan put his armored core into a kneeling position and exited the cockpit intent on seeing just how many people had managed to survive this attack. As he got out of the Lucifer's and had a look at the hundreds of people reuniting with their friends and lovers in the Desert Dawn resistance forces he felt a touch of envy enter him. Nathan wished that he had someone like that to return to but quickly reminded himself that he did once and no one and nothing could ever hope to replace her.

A tear fell from his eye as he looked at the scene before him but he held back anymore from falling and wiped away any evidence that he had been crying, he couldn't afford to look weak especially at a time like this. The resistance fighters were all happy that their loved ones were safe. Sahib walked up to the village elder and saw his son next to the old man. His son who was naturally overjoyed to see his father ran up to him and attempted to tackle the larger man into a hug.

"Father!" the boy exclaimed happily. Sahib smiled and felt tears of joy threatening to overcome him "My son! Oh thank god you're still alive!" Sahib said before releasing the boy from his embrace and he ruffled the boy's head a little bit.

Sahib turned from his son and looked at the village elder "How many were killed?" he asked.

"The ZAFT soldiers warned us ahead of time telling us to leave immediately or we would burn along with the village so we all left" he explained with a slightly perplexed look as he tried to understand the Desert Tiger's actions. The old man then turned back from the leader of the resistance fighters to look on at the still burning village

"Everything is gone now, ammunition, fuel, our food, our shelter, everything" he said sadly. Sahib looked enraged at the Desert Tiger's actions. The rebel's fists clenched and he grit his teeth angrily. "What the hell was going through that maniac's mind when he did all of this?" he asked himself softly but not soft enough that no one couldn't hear him.

Mu's voice broke the resistance leader out of his thoughts "You can still manage to survive you know" he said. The resistance fighters and the townspeople all looked at Mu.

"As long as you're still alive you can rebuild what you just lost" he explained "Besides I don't' think that the Tiger wants to do any serious fighting with you"

"What the hell do you mean by that?" demanded Cagalli but Mu continued to talk "And to be honest I think that it's pretty damn generous for commander Waltfield to let you off with such a minor punishment" he explained. Cagalli's eyes narrowed in anger as she marched right up to Mu and tried to slap him but the ace pilot easily managed to avoid the girl's clumsy and ill attempted attack by sidestepping it.

"You call something like _THIS_ minor!" she demanded angrily before she gestured at the smoldering ruins with her hand.

"An entire town was just burned to the ground!" Cagalli yelled "How the hell can you even consider thinking that something like that to be generous!"

Mu put his hands in front of himself defensively and said "Hey, I'm sorry if I offended you but those guys are professional soldiers. It could have been much worse than it already is, they could have just decided to burn the town to the ground while everyone was still inside" However Mu's reasoning did not even come close to getting through to Cagalli who was now clenching her fists in a rage.

"That man is nothing more than a lousy, stinking coward. He burns down this town when we're not even here to defend it and then the monster dares to call it a victory. We fight with courage and we even managed to destroy several BuCUEs in that last battle. That's why that commander can only get us back with a cowardly attack such as this!" she ranted.

As the girl continued to rant at the Earth Forces pilot, one of the resistance fighters lightly tapped on Sahib's shoulder getting his attention.

"Sahib I think that there's something you should see" he whispered.

Sahib reluctantly followed the resistance fighter even though he didn't want to leave the civilians for so much as a moment even if they were being treated and looked after. The man led Sahib to where several of the other members of Desert Dawn were gathering.

It wasn't the entire force but it was a good portion of it and Sahib had some idea as to what it was they were planning on doing but decided to hear his comrades out before he decided to jump to any conclusions.

As the man led him to near the center of the group he saw that one of the men was listening in on a portable radio through some headphones.

The resistance fighter gave one of his comrades a thumbs up before he turned to his leader and said "They're still transmitting on their radios so that must mean that they're close by" one said eager for some payback as to what had happened to their town.

"They should be very low on ammunition after what they did here. So now would be the perfect time to strike while they're in a weakened state" said another one of the rebels who was busy loading his RPG.

Sahib couldn't believe what it was he was hearing. They wanted to go after several BuCUEs that were being accompanied by the Desert Tiger himself with only a few dozen jeeps and halftracks armed with some antitank rockets. it was absolute madness.

"Don't be foolish!' he exclaimed trying to get his men to see reason "If you're wondering what to do then go look after the injured and your families that is far more important right now than some ill conceived revenge plan that will only end in your deaths!"

But the other men didn't seem to be listening or caring about what their leader was saying at the moment and instead they simply scraped together whatever ammunition and weapons that were left and quickly got onto their vehicles and drove away from their commander intent on following through with their suicide mission.

Sahib was about to try and go after them hoping that he could try and talk some sense into the rebels. However he saw that someone had already taken the last remaining jeep as it got closer to him he saw who was in it. Cagalli, Kisaka and Ahmed. "Cagalli, Ahmed, Kisaka what the hell are you doing?" Sahib demanded.

"We're going after them" explained Kisaka while he and Cagalli loaded their RPGs "Wish us luck Sahib!" said Ahmed giving the resistance leader a thumbs up before the three of them drove away from the leader of the Desert Dawn despite his protests.

Sahib ran back to the Atlantic Federation soldiers that were nearby and looked directly at Kira, Mu, Nathan and Flay "Please I need your help!" he yelled trying to get their attention "What are you talking about? there are plenty of people here that could use some help Sahib" Flay stated as she helped the doctors from the ship with the other civilians.

"Several of my men just ran off, they're going after the Desert Tiger and the BuCUEs!" he said and while Nathan could relate to such actions as he had done such things before, he gave the resistance leader an almost incredulous look. "You can't be serious it's suicide to go up against so much as one BuCUE with just a bunch of RPGs"

Sahib looked at the young man exasperatedly "Don't you think I tried to explain that to them, but they won't listen to me. They're so blinded by vengeance that they're blind and deaf to anything else!"

Nathan sighed they'd have to go after those guys as quickly as possible. If they didn't try and stop them there wasn't going to be a single member of the desert dawn left alive before the day was over.

* * *

><p>-Desert-<p>

* * *

><p>Andrew Waltfield and the rest of the BuCUEs were heading back to their base after completing their mission. Commander Waltfield wasn't particularly proud of what he had done to Tassel but at least nobody innocent was killed in the attack. As they continued to head back to base the pilot in the leading BuCUE spoke up.<p>

"Sir we got multiple heat signatures incoming" the pilot announced. Andrew inwardly scowled, he knew that this little excursion was going too well. Besides he knew that it wasn't just ghost readings since his pilots along with himself had been out here long enough to tell the difference between the two. "Is it those armored cores or that mobile suit?" he asked.

"No commander, the readings are too small and their are a couple dozen of them, I'd say that it's probably just those resistance fighters coming for a bit of payback for what we did to that village" The jeeps came closer and closer to the squadron of BuCUEs and once the ones who were leading the charge opened fire with their RPGs. The small rockets hit the BuCUEs in the torso and legs but of course the small weapons failed to do anything other than give the ZAFT pilots a reason the favor.

Since most of their ammunition had been expended during the battle the pilots of the BuCUEs instead settled for running down and crushing their opponents which was relatively easy to accomplish considering how fast a BuCUE could move in an open environment.

The majority of the rebels were run down and killed in a matter of moments. Ahmed watched the other rebels get crushed underneath the legs of the ZAFT mobile suits and turned his head away from the carnage. This continued until there were only a handful of the rebels left alive.

The young rebel saw that one of the BuCUEs that had accompanied the Desert Tiger had stopped running around killing the Desert Dawn soldiers and now appeared to be looking around for more targets to eliminate. Ahmed drove behind the giant wolf shaped mobile suit while Cagalli and Kisaka brought out a couple of RPGs that they had on board the jeep.

They were right underneath the BuCUE where the armor was at its weakest "Hit it now Cagalli!" ordered Ahmed trying to keep the jeep's speed the same as the mobile suit situated above them.

Cagalli pulled the trigger on her rocket while Kisaka did the same with his weapon. The rocket spewed forth from the RPG launcher and struck the underbelly of the mobile suit half a second later. Unfortunately though the rocket had completely failed to yield any significant damage. Kisaka however aimed for one of the joints that connected the front legs to the main body. However the rocket veered off course and hit the hull that was right above the metal joints causing minimal damage to its leg.

The pilot however immediately found their location and as they were attempting to get away from the wolf like mobile suit the BuCUE stomped on the ground intending on crushing them underfoot. However the jeep managed to swerve out of the way at the last second and although this prevented them from being crushed they were launched into the air instead.

Cagalli and Kisaka were launched from their spots and into the air almost instantly but landed safely on the loose sand that covered the vast desert. Ahmed however wasn't so lucky instead he was launched straight through the windshield of the jeep and landed on his back in the sand.

The second that Cagalli had landed she looked around in a daze since she was rather disoriented from being thrown off the jeep. Kisaka however had almost immediately shaken it off came running over to Cagalli and began to shake her lightly in an attempt to bring her out of her stupor.

"Cagalli come on we have to go!" he ordered before Cagalli snapped out of it and looked around noticing that there was someone missing "Where's Ahmed?" she asked worriedly while frantically looking around the area for her friend. The two of them then heard a pained moan coming from nearby.

Ahmed was lying on his back with a knife like shard of glass stuck in his abdomen. Things only got worse as the boy's blood had quickly started to create a large stain underneath his clothes which told them that the glass had punctured an artery. "Ahmed!" Cagalli cried rushing over to him and she began to try and stop the bleeding as best she could.

She then heard the mechanical stomping of a BuCUE that was moving close by. Kisaka and Cagalli looked up and saw the BuCUE standing directly over them. They then heard a weapon's discharge, Cagalli as well as Kisaka both flinched when they saw that the BuCUE had swayed to its left for a moment and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Cagalli looked and saw the Strike equipped with its Aile pack and still slightly smoking beam rifle which told them both that it had been the one that had saved them and nearby was the Lucifer which was already opening fire with its shoulder mounted missile launchers and its sub machine gun.

The second that the BuCUEs saw the newcomers to the fight they scattered attempting to try and surround them but one wasn't quick enough and was hit by a series of SMG bursts from the Lucifer destroying it. Kira targeted one of the BuCUEs that was nearby and fired. The shot however cleanly missed the target that he was aiming for. Noticing the problem with the beam rifle Kira once again began to adjust the operating system of the Strike for the conditions that were in the desert.

It only took the boy a few seconds and he opened fire on one of the BuCUEs that was about to open fire with its back mounted rocket pods. The missile pods slid off the mechanical beast rendering it virtually weaponless and was cut down in a hail of beam rifle fire that tore through its cockpit which vaporized the pilot almost instantly. Another BuCUE came charging at Nathan but a quick slice from his energy blade decapitated the machine which quickly eliminated the threat.

Andrew Waltfield was observing the battle from his jeep and saw another one of his pilots get killed by the Strike as it used a beam saber to slice it in half. He mentally cursed, unless they pulled back his subordinates were going to be slaughtered by the enemy mobile suit and that armored core

"DaCosta order our men to fall back" he ordered while his second in command immediately relayed the orders to the pilots in the remaining BuCUEs. The pilots immediately did as they were told and began to fall back.

Kira was about to go after the retreating enemy but the Lucifer held out an arm to stop him "Kira let them go we'll finish this fight later" said Nathan. Kira did as he was told and was happy that he wouldn't be forced to possibly kill anyone else and although he still didn't like killing it would seem that he wasn't as emotional about it as he used to be.

Nathan piloted the Lucifer over to where Cagalli and Kisaka were trying to treat Ahmed. The Red Eyed Devil's armored core entered a kneeling position and Nathan stepped out of the cockpit and headed down on the pilot line. As he approached he saw that Cagalli had taken out the large shard of glass and the small stain of blood that was under the kid's clothes was enormous and Nathan could make out a small amount of blood that slowly dripping from Ahmed's mouth.

It was clear that he wasn't going to last much longer. Nathan saw the Strike land nearby and Kira got out of the machine. Nathan however didn't seem to notice him and continued to walk over to the dying Ahmed his hand reaching for his pistol that he kept on his hip holster.

As he walked only Kisaka seemed to notice that Nathan had his weapon out and what he was probably planning on doing. He didn't like it but it would be cruel to just watch Ahmed die slowly without at least offering to ease his suffering "Ahmed hang in there!" Cagalli ordered before turning to Nathan.

"Hey Nathan help me put pressure on this wound!" she ordered, however Nathan didn't' respond and instead he pulled out the pistol he always carried with him from its holster and walked over to Ahmed. Cagalli saw that Nathan had drawn out his weapon and had no idea what it was that he was doing.

"Nathan what the hell do you think that you're doing?" she demanded while tears began to well up in the corner of Nathan's eyes. Ahmed looked at Nathan and managed to cough out "It hurts!" he said taking in deep gasping breaths in between words "I can help you with the pain" said Nathan reluctantly taking aim at Ahmed's chest.

"Do you want me to pull the trigger?" he asked but before Ahmed could make a response Kira had just ran up to them "Nathan what do you think you're doing!" he demanded mimicking Cagalli's question from earlier. "That piece of glass has pierced one of his arteries and in less than three minutes he'll have died a slow and painful death I'm offering an alternative to that" he explained. Kira looked appalled at the mere thought of killing one of the allies that they had made only a few hours earlier.

"B-but there's got to be some other way!" he exclaimed disbelieving what it was that he was hearing. Nathan turned his head to Kira and the boy could see tears beginning to stream down his eyes a little "You don't think that I don't wish that there was?" he demanded before everyone heard Ahmed speak up in a weak and tired voice.

"P-please j-just end it" he begged before Cagalli turned back to him and renewed her efforts at trying to save his life and put even more pressure on the wound but everyone could see that it was a lost cause "Ahmed you're going to be fine just hang-" she started but the dying boy interrupted her.

"I'm dying I-I can feel it. I'd rather j-just end it here and now" Nathan nodded sadly before he aimed the gun at Ahmed's chest and pulled back on the gun's hammer "I promise that you'll be remembered Ahmed" Nathan declared and Ahmed managed a weak "Thank you" before the Raven pulled the trigger on his pistol and sent a bullet through the rebel soldier's heart killing him instantly.

The second that the bullet hit Ahmed he saw caught Cagalli, tears streaming down her face out of the corner of his eye heading straight for him. Nathan didn't attempt to fight back or block the attack he knew was coming and instead simply just stood there and took the damage that the blond haired girl was going to inflict on him.

Cagalli's right hook caught him on the cheek and the very force of the attack sent him into the sand before she grabbed him and pulled him up "You fucking bastard why did you do that!" she demanded almost hysterically while tears fell down her face "You're friend was going to die an exceedingly painful death, so I chose the lesser of two evils, I gave him a choice" Nathan explained tears coming down his face as well

Cagalli looked like she was about to try and punch him again when Kira came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head a little bit and looked at Kira "Please just stop" he begged. He too looked on the verge of crying even though that he hadn't even known Ahmed nearly as long as she had.

"Please don't do this, I don't agree with what he did but at least he gave Ahmed a choice and I think that Nathan hates what he did even more than you do" he explained. Cagalli looked back at Nathan and for the first time realized that his tears were also streaming down his face and took a good long look at his eyes.

They held many long, hard years of both pain and suffering in them. The blond haired girl slowly released Nathan from her grasp and allowed him to fall to his knees in the sand tears still streaming down his face like a river.

Kira then looked up at the sky and wondered to himself as tears spilled down his own face _'Why can't this war just end?'_

To be continued.


	14. The Lair of the Tiger

Armored Seed

Chapter 14

Lair of the Tiger

Disclaimer I own nothing but the Black Skulls

Nathan sat down in the back of the jeep trying to enjoy the warm desert breeze that was blowing in his face. It had been about four or five days since the destruction of Tassel. Just a few days after its destruction the civilians that lived there were relocated to another area where they would be able to rebuild their homes.

In exchange for helping finding a new place for the villagers to rebuild their homes, the Desert Dawn readily agreed to give the crew of the Archangel some of their newer maps and information that concerned the general area that they were stuck in for the time being.

This happened to be a very fruitful exchange considering that most of the maps that the Archangel that showed enemy occupied areas were mainly based on prewar information which was unreliable at best considering the situation that they were in now. One would have thought that the Atlantic Federation and its allies would've been trying to gather some newer more up to date information on the areas that were currently being occupied by the enemy.

But it didn't make much of a difference now.

The Archangel's crew now had most of the information that they needed to try and escape North Africa ASAP. All that was needed now was some newer information on the kinds of weapons and equipment that commander Waltfield was now using. Currently Nathan, Kira and Cagalli were heading for a rather large town that was confirmed by the Desert Dawn Rebels to be where Andrew Waltfield's base of operations was located.

Their orders were simple enough. Recon the town, gather as much information as they could and then rendezvous for extraction at sundown with Natarle and a few members of the Desert Dawn resistance force who were also going into town to get some weapons and ammunition from the local arms dealers that had set up shop in the town.

However they weren't just going in there for information several crewmembers onboard the Archangel, had asked them to pick up several groceries as well as a few luxury items, the latter of which mainly came from Li and Flay.

Since it was partially a information gathering mission they weren't going to bring any heavy weapons with them, in fact Nathan was the only one in the group that was actually carrying one. It was a heavily customized variation of one of the more recent models of the colt.45 auto.

The weapon itself looked remarkably different than its more common brethren. It had a barrel extension that doubled as a silencer, a customized slide mechanism that helped to prevent the weapon from jamming during combat and sights that made it a little easier to acquire targets in darkened areas.

In addition to the pistol he also carried three additional twenty round clips as opposed to the more common sixteen round clips that the weapon would usually carry, these were hidden by the light jacket that he wore to prevent his arms and parts of his torso from getting sunburned. Nathan also kept a number of throwing knives hidden on his person so that he could more easily eliminate any hostiles without drawing too much attention to himself.

The ride over there was mostly uneventful. There weren't many decent sights to look at on the way since there was little else than rocks and sand. And it was made worse by the scorching heat that they were in. Sure they were going fast enough that the wind was acting as a kind of air conditioner that managed to block off some of the bulk of the heat out in the desert but that obviously wasn't enough for them.

Nathan looked over at Kira and Cagalli, the latter of whom didn't look nearly as bothered as Kira was with the heat but the reason for that was probably because she had been spending the last month or so out in the desert.

It was at least another twenty or thirty minutes until they reached the town and much to Kira and Nathan's surprise it was didn't seem to look like a town that was under an enemy occupation. Children were out playing and having fun. People went about their business looking for various items at the market stands and they didn't appear to notice or fear the ZAFT presence in the area all that much or if they did they were incredibly good at hiding it.

"Are you sure that this town is being controlled by ZAFT?" Kira asked observing the scene that lay before him "It seems like pretty lively place" Cagalli frowned at Kira's assumptions.

"Come with me you two" she ordered in a peeved tone that suggested that they should do as they were told before walking down a nearby alley.

Nathan followed the two of them after Kira took after the girl. Once they got passed the trash filled alley there was a bombed out building with a giant crater in the center of it. Nathan took a quick look at the remains of the building and saw that the damage that had been inflicted on that part of the city had probably come from an artillery shell one that most likely had originated from the Lesseps if the large size of the crater was anything to go by.

And as though by some unseen force the moment that he had finished that thought Nathan looked upwards a little and saw the land based battleship Lesseps in all its glory. The massive war machine toward over every building in the town by several stories. "And there you have it" said Cagalli anger and frustration clearly evident in every word she said, "That's the real ruler of this city." she said before they continued onwards.

As they continued to walk Nathan had noticed that there was a man wearing shades and a hat was currently observing them from a nearby café and had been watching them for a while now. The Raven pilot had his suspicions about the man watching them but decided to keep his thoughts to himself at the moment in case the guy really was some kind of ZAFT agent.

If Nathan took the chance about telling his companions about that man, he might overhear them and prepare an ambush and although the guy watching them was the only one who really stood out amongst the villagers Nathan didn't want to take the risk that there weren't more skulking around nearby.

-Archangel hanger-

Captain Murrue Ramius and commander Mu La Flaga were looking over at the Beta unit whose pilot had just undergone several hours worth of combat simulation training in the machine. After a while Flay exited the armored core and took off her helmet and began to wipe some of the sweat she had gathered off of her forehead before she went to the locker room to change.

The captain looked over at Mu and asked "Am I the only one here who's noticed that she's been acting a little different since we landed on earth?" Mu shrugged and gave the captain a small grin "Well I was told by Cross that when Kira was brought in unconscious it looked like she was going to keel over when she saw him. Plus she stayed by his side the entire time that he was in the medical wing" he explained.

Murrue put her hand to her chin in thought. The two of them had definitely been growing closer if what Mu had just told her was anything to go on. "So what do you think we should do about this situation?" she asked. The two started to leave the hanger and head down one of the corridors of the ship.

Mu looked at captain Murrue and shrugged "Not really much we can do about it captain. From what I've learned from some of the Skulls Li has been trying to get those two into a romantic relationship for the past several weeks" he said before Murrue looked at him incredulously.

"You're kidding me right?" she asked finding it a little difficult to believe that a pilot of that woman's caliber would be doing something as odd as playing match maker with people.

"Oh yeah according to Cross, it's probably one of her favorite hobbies, she loves to pair people up who she thinks would make cute couples, and she almost never seems to fail at it" he explained before giving a light chuckle. Before either of them could continue talking they saw captain Hackett and he had an unusually serious expression on his face.

"Captain Ramius commander La Flaga I need to speak with the two of you in private at once!" he said the look on his face hardening even further. The captain of the Zeus quickly led them to a more secluded portion of the ship and once there he all but exploded on them.

"Do you realize what you'd done when you sent Nathan out on that intelligence gathering mission and shopping spree? Oh wait of course you don't otherwise you wouldn't have sent him at all!" he exclaimed angrily much to the two officers' confusion.

Mu put his hands in front of him defensively wondering what the older man was going on about.

"Captain Hackett calm down now what the hell are you talking about exactly?" the man asked. Hackett looked to the floor for a second before taking in and letting out a long deep breath.

"I apologize for my outburst captain and commander but I think that you've made a terrible mistake that is partly my fault for not having informed you of this earlier." he explained a little vaguely but before either could ask what kind of mistake that they had made Hackett continued.

"You see, Nathan..." he stopped trying to figure out the right words what he was going to say to them next "...Nathan has a rather intense hatred for a certain anti-Coordinator group that I'm sure you've all heard of, the Blue Cosmos" he explained taking out a cigar and lighter before putting the cancer stick in his mouth and lighting it. He took a few puffs from the cigar before exhaling.

"Before the whole Bloody Valentines Day Tragedy he had a girlfriend in the PLANTs. She lived on Junius Seven to be exact and the poor lass was killed during that massacre. After her death Nathan mostly blamed himself for what had happened, for several weeks the lad kept on saying that it was his fault for what had happened there because he wasn't there to protect them like he promised. After mourning for a while he went off on an ill conceived quest for vengeance. He tracked down the Blue Cosmos cell that had helped cause that blood bath. When he did find them, he slaughtered them all brutally, not a single one of them was left alive. During the ensuing fight he lost the use of his eyes. And before either of you ask how it is he can still see, we gave him a new pair of eyes, cybernetic implants to be precise that are just as life like as his old ones save for the red iris'" the old captain explained.

Mu and Ramius both looked slightly horrified and sympathetic at the amount of suffering that Nathan went through. It was no wonder he rarely expressed any kind of an emotion, he had been hiding it all away in fear that he'd feel the same sense of loss should someone else close to him die.

However some things still didn't add up, what in the hell did any of this have to do with him tearing down that town that they sent the three of them to? Commander La Flaga then asked the question that was on both his and captain Ramius' minds.

"Wait what the in the hell does any of this have to do with him going on a intelligence gathering op?" he asked before Hackett looked up and sighed "Some of Raphael's contacts in the region have said numerous times that there's a small Blue Cosmos cell operating in the area if he finds out about them I worry that he'll tear that town apart brick by brick to try and kill them all" he explained to a worried audience.

Mu turned to Murrue and asked "Should I go and call Natarle to go over and pick him up?" but Murrue shook her head "It was almost a year ago and I'd like to think that he'd develop some form self control by now besides even if we sent Natarle over to his location, by the time that she arrived there, Nathan would probably already have figured out about the cell anyways so there's very little point in doing that" she explained.

-ZAFT occupied town-

They had been wandering around town for more than an hour and it seemed that everywhere they went that guy that was watching them from earlier was around. But at the moment Nathan wasn't too concerned with that right now. He and Kira were carrying almost a dozen bags in their hands each one filled to the brim with food and other similar goods while Cagalli carried almost nothing at all.

Nathan sighed slightly, this was why he hated having to go on shopping trips but at least it wasn't as bad as it could have been, especially if Li had decided to join them on this little excursion. It would have been much worse because unlike Cagalli who wanted to just get everything that was on the list and get out, Li would have wanted to take her time, examine almost every single shop and every item in it and then leave to the next one until they had to head back to the ship.

The Raven pilot was broken out of his thoughts as Cagalli finished paying for some more of the food that was on the list and put it into one of the bags that Kira was carrying. Nathan was amazed that Kira hadn't fallen forward in exhaustion from carrying all of the stuff that Cagalli had been making him drag around.

"Okay on to the next place" she said almost nonchalantly while Kira adopted a look of pure horror on his face. _'You poor miserable bastard'_ thought Nathan trying his very best not to smile and laugh at the ridiculous expression that was pretty much plastered on Kira's face.

After a few more stops they headed for the town square where they'd get some food and rest. Nathan looked around to make sure that the guy from earlier was still following them. And sure enough the man was still on their tail but he seemed to be a little more subtle about it and he kept a much greater distance from them but not enough so that Nathan wouldn't notice him.

Nathan sat down at a nearby table allowing his legs a much needed rest while Kira simply put down the bags filled with food and other similar supplies near the table and slouched on the chair in exhaustion but Nathan didn't look that bothered by the fact that he had been carrying almost twenty pounds worth of food.

Kira looked at up at Nathan who was sitting in the seat next to him.

The young Coordinator wondered why he didn't appear to be as exhausted as him "Well you seem to still be okay" he said tiredly. Nathan raised an eyebrow at Kira,

"You clearly haven't gone on a shopping trip with Li yet have you Kira?" Nathan asked before Kira shook his head of course he hadn't otherwise he would compare these packages to carrying a couple of bags filled with feathers. Nathan looked thoughtful for a second or two as if he was wondering what he should say to Kira. Then Nathan finally spoke "Let me just say that if she was here we'd probably be in worse straights then we are now" he explained.

"How's that?" Kira asked curiously wondering if he'd regret asking that question before Nathan sighed and looked upwards towards the sky in thought "We'd probably have to carry at least another couple dozen bags filled with god knows what that she had picked out and that would probably add at least another ten or fifteen pounds to this already annoyingly heavy amount" he explained while Kira looked genuinely grateful that the female Raven operator hadn't decided to join them that day.

While the two pilots talked the food vender gave Cagalli some Kabobs and she licked her lips almost eagerly. The blond haired girl hadn't had any real food in almost a month. Cagalli was just about to put some chili sauce on her food but someone interrupted her "You don't want to do that" said the man that Nathan instantly recognized to be the one who had been following them. Nathan mean while was discretely fingering one of the throwing knives that he had been keeping in his jacket just in case the man in front of them would prove to be hostile.

Cagalli however just turned to look at the new arrival with a confused expression "What? Why not?" she asked incredulously.

Unfortunately this harmless comment about the chili sauce quickly escalated into a humorous argument over what type of sauce that they should be using on that kind of food. Nathan managed to quickly tune the two of them out and looked around the area trying to admire some of the scenery while it seemed that Kira was attempting to do the same but wasn't having as much success mainly because both of them had begun to insist on what he should put on his kabob.

-Nearby Rooftop-

The local Blue Cosmos cell had been tracking the Desert Tiger for the last couple of days. They had been keeping a close eye on the space monster but not attacking him outright because it wasn't much of an opportune moment. Almost every time he had gone out he had some soldiers nearby.

The leader of the cell, a man by the name of Zeke Speyer was watching the mindless argument down below unfold incredulously. He honestly hadn't been expecting this from the legendary Desert Tiger. He seemed really laid back and a little too easy going for one of ZAFT's most premium commanders. At first they thought that they had the wrong guy but he definitely looked almost exactly him even with the hat and sunglasses.

"So boss when are we going to waste that fucking space monster?" asked the youngest member of the cell who was rather eager to start killing the space monsters. Speyer ignored him for a few seconds, he was still looking through his binoculars at what was probably going to be collateral damage and saw a guy who was for the most part ignoring the two that were fighting down there. The Blue Cosmos cell leader took a few seconds to recognize the boy and his eyes widened in disbelief.

It was the Red Eyed Devil, the god damned Red Eyed Devil was right down there with their primary target, he couldn't believe it. Speyer figured that If they managed to kill the little bastard who had been causing the Blue Cosmos so much grief for the past year, they would probably have a statue built in their honor or something like that once the war was finally over.

However if he told them about their secondary target before it was downed the rest of his men might chicken out of the mission which it had been hard enough to get them to go along with as the Desert Tiger was a legendary opponent on and off the battlefield and it would be impossible for him to convince these bumbling idiots that this was too good an opportunity to just simply pass up. Speyer smiled for a second or two before turning to his second in command along with his other compatriots who were still busy loading up the rest of their weapons.

"You'll open fire when I give the signal and only when I give the signal, if the first shot fails we'll go in and take out the commander on the street level" he explained while passing out assault rifles to his other terrorist friends. Today was the day that Andrew Waltfield and the Red Eyed Devil would meet their respective ends.

-Café-

The two had all but dragged Kira into their mindless argument and Nathan was rolling his eyes almost constantly at the two of their bickering it was just so damned ridiculous arguing over fucking sauce to put on food. Eventually Cagalli asked the question that was on almost everyone's minds "Just who are you anyway you just show up at our table and lecture use about some stupid stuff"

Nathan had since been trying to tune the two of them out but was starting to fail. As their pointless argument intensified Nathan felt a preemptive headache launching itself and he began to massage his temples and was on the verge of telling the two to shut the fuck up when he heard someone shouting close by.

"For the preservation of our blue and pure world!" when said together those words probably formed one of the most hated sentences that anyone at that table had ever heard in their lives. Nathan's reaction however was by far the most severe. His eyes widened a fraction before narrowing in pure unbridled hatred. But before he could respond in kind to that statement he heard a loud boom that signaled the approach of an rocket.

The man who had been following them around for the past couple of hours threw the table that they were using up in the air and into the direction of the RPG. The table didn't block or stop the rocket propelled grenade but it did manage redirect it upwards where it soared for a few seconds before exploding harmlessly in the air.

Since the terrorists initial plan didn't work they quickly ran out of the same building that the RPG had come from guns blazing while shouting the Blue Cosmos' battle cry.

"It's the Blue Cosmos!" yelled Cagalli stating the obvious while they all ducked behind another table and used it for cover. The tables themselves were made out of a thick metal and wood so they easily managed to block the bullets that were being shot at them.

The man from earlier pulled out a small Scorpion machine pistol that was equipped with an extended magazine and returned fire while Nathan pulled out a throwing knife and threw it as hard as he could at one of the approaching terrorists. His aim was true and the knife he had thrown landed perfectly into the man's throat and blood immediately began to pour out of the wound.

The Blue Cosmos member's hands reached up in an attempt to remove the weapon but they didn't reach it, instead he fell to the ground while continuing to make gurgling noises that were probably attempts at screaming in pain as his blood began to paint the street a dark red color.

Kira and Cagalli looked on as Nathan returned fire at the terrorists with an almost crazed look in his eyes. He pulled out his pistol and shot several rounds at the terrorists. One of his bullets went straight through the terrorist's left eye socket and straight out though the back of the man's skull flying forward but with less momentum before the bullet found itself a resting spot in a brick wall.

The terrorist's comrade that was only a few feet away was hit in his chest and although the bullets were deflected by the bullet proof vest, the next shot impacted right above his collar bone. Both of the Blue Cosmos members fell to the ground in a dead heap and twitched for a second before they finally fell.

The Blue Cosmos terrorist that was positioned on the roof was preparing to open fire with another round from his RPG but the man in the hat and sunglasses didn't give the man a chance to even load the weapon. He opened fire with his machine pistol and riddled the man's unarmored chest up with nine millimeter slugs causing the poor bastard to sway back and forth where he was for a moment before falling down to the streets below.

As the fighting continued around him Kira spotted another Blue Cosmos terrorist hiding by an alley. He took a spent magazine cartridge from on the ground nearby and chucked the discarded item as hard as he could at the man. The spent magazine hit the man square in his nose with a resounding crack which sent the man reeling back a bit while his hands clutched the now bleeding orifice.

The young Coordinator then ran up to the man and kicked him square in the jaw sending him to the ground in terrible pain. The man from earlier fired a round into the man's forehead putting him out of his misery while Kira watched not liking that the guy had just killed someone who couldn't fight back but he ran back into cover while another terrorist continued to fire at the table that was protecting both Kira and his friends from harm.

There were only two of them left now. One of the two terrorists was firing madly with his squad automatic weapon. However in his zeal none of the bullets had hit any of the intended target, instead they had only managed to strike air and parts of the cafe in front of him and failed to hit a thing that was in front of him. He was quickly put down when Nathan fired a round that hit him right between the eyes

The last remaining terrorist had run out of ammunition for his weapon and had begun to retreat down an alley. Nathan quickly got out of cover he was in and ran after the cowardly bastard while both Cagalli and Kira cried out for him to come back.

Speyer began to curse almost madly in his mind, his whole plan had gone to hell. They were supposed to kill the Desert Tiger not the other way around, and that Red Eyed Devil guy he was the worst one there. That little race traitor had killed several of his subordinates and somehow had managed to throw a knife clean into one of his best men's carotid artery from over ten feet away.

Speyer swore to himself that one day he'd burn the little brat on the stake. Unfortunately for him he was the last remaining member of the cell which was the only one operating for miles and he couldn't possibly manage to kill off Waltfield or the Red Eyed Devil on his own.

He had to get out of town for a while and lay low for a bit, maybe head for a nearby city and gather up some recruits there wasn't any shortage of people who were angry at ZAFT around here. But first things first he had to get out of this place and cover his tracks.

The terrorist was ripped from his thoughts when he was felt a fist impact the back of his head which sent him falling face first onto the ground. Once he landed the Blue Cosmos terrorist felt his nose get dislocated or even broken, blood began to slowly seep out of the orifice. Speyer then turned onto his back intending to at least see who his attacker was once he did however he felt his eyes widen in fear. Standing only a few feet in front of Speyer was the Red Eyed Devil himself who was staring back at him with a look that contained nothing but pure rage and death.

Speyer quickly moved his arm in an effort to pull out his side arm but a quick stomp from the Raven pilot's booted foot prevented that plan by breaking the man's wrist. Speyer screamed at the injury that Nathan had just inflicted on him and was going to clutch his wounded hand but the boy tackled him while pulling out one of his combat knives. Nathan began to angrily stab the man repeatedly in the chest with rapid succession not stopping for anything.

The soldier continued to stab the terrorist even after it was clear to everyone else that the man known as Speyer had died. He stopped the instant that he felt a hand on his shoulder "Easy kiddo he's dead" said the man from earlier. Nathan let out the breath that he didn't even realize that he had been holding in before he came out of his blood rage. The pilot then dropped his combat knife letting the weapon fall to the ground and make a clattering noise before he angrily spat on the corpse of the terrorist he had just killed.

He walked back to what was left of the café where his friends were waiting for him. Kira had a slightly concerned expression on his face while Cagalli looked a little nervous. Nathan took a good look and saw that she had gotten chili sauce in her hair giving half of her hair a thick red look to her otherwise golden hair.

"Commander sir are you alright?" asked a red haired soldier wearing ZAFT military fatigues as he ran up to the man from earlier. Cagalli quickly put two and two together and her eyes widened in revelation on who the mysterious man was "You-you're the desert tiger!" she exclaimed while Kira just looked as stunned as she was. Nathan's expression however remained neutral.

The man removed his hat and sunglasses "Guilty as charged little lady" he said with a big grin plastered on his face.

After saving the guy who had been their opponent ever since they had managed to land on Earth, Andrew Waltfield had turned out to be unlike anything they had pictured in their minds. The man was very civil and incredibly polite towards them. However he invited them to stay for a little while at his temporary home, mainly to clean up Cagalli who had chili and yogurt sauce on her clothes and hair.

As they drove towards it they saw that it was a massive mansion surrounded by heavily armed guards and several mobile suits that consisted of GINNs, BuCUEs and even a couple of ZuOOTs. There was so much heavy weapons there that Kira couldn't help but feel a little more than nervous about his surroundings.

Cagalli who seemed to have noticed this turned to Kira "Don't worry we'll be fine" she said trying to get him to stop being nervous.

Despite the assuring words the three of them realized very quickly that If the Desert Tiger found out who they were they were completely screwed. And knowing that man he probably already did. The commander's jeep parked right by the front of the massive mansion while several guards approached them and demanded that Nathan hand over all of the weapons that he had on him.

Knowing that he'd probably be blown away if he refused he pulled out his pistol, its ammunition and the last of his throwing knives and handed them over to the guards and even after handing them over they still proceeded to search him to make sure that he wasn't' carrying any other weapons hidden on him. After they had finished searching him and his friends Nathan turned to Waltfield and said "I'll be needing those back when we leave"

"Of course" said Andrew as they headed inside the massive home. Once inside they saw that the place was also loaded with guards along with a beautiful woman with long black hair with orange flecks. "Oh my was this the girl you were talking about Andy?" she asked walking over to Cagalli who looked a little nervously at the woman.

"Yep that's her, everyone this is my companion Aisha" he said chuckling lightly "Oh but I always thought that I was more than just a 'companion'" she teased playfully before whisking Cagalli away and into another room.

Kira was about to go after her but Aisha smiled and said "Don't worry we'll be done in no time just wait here with Andy" she said giving a kind smile. Kira however still didn't look convinced and watched as the two women entered another room. Nathan put a hand on Kira's shoulder and he said "Cagalli can take care of herself Kira, she'll be fine"

The two of them were then led into a room that looked quite nice, it had a few nice paintings and similar objects but not to the point of being too fancy. Nathan looked around a little and found several shelves that held a variety of different books that looked very old and valuable. It also seemed as though they were more likely there for decoration rather than reading material.

Kira however was looking over by the fireplace where there was what looked like a fossil of some sort of small whale imprinted on a rock. What was odd about it though was that it looked like it had wings attached to it which was something that almost looked impossible.

As Kira looked at the strange fossil he then heard liquid dripping onto something nearby. The young Coordinator turned and saw the commander pouring coffee into a nearby mug, he then proceeded to pour some more of the drink into two other mugs. He offered the two drinks to Kira and Nathan who both took them. Kira managed to drink his cup down in less than a second, Nathan however was only slightly concerned over the possibility that there may have been poison in the cup.

But if the drink itself was just a way to kill them but if Waltfield wanted them dead he'd have killed them back at the café. All possible thoughts on poison being in the drink went down the drain when the man took a big gulp of the coffee. Nathan and Kira followed suit, although neither of them were as obsessed with coffee as the commander this was probably the best drink that either of them had ever tasted in their lives.

"So mister Waltfield what kind of fossil is that? I don't recall ever seeing something like that before" said Nathan curious as to what that imprint was.

Andrew grinned "Why that's part of Evidence 01 of course" he said causing Nathan and Kira to look at the ZAFT commander with shock evident on their faces. Part of Evidence 01 was right in front of them. True it wasn't the massive fossil that was found in the PLANTs supreme council building but it was truly a sight to behold.

"I don't even know why they call it a whale stone anyways. After all whales don't even have wings, do they now?" asked Andy before he stroked his chin in thought.

"Now why would some kind of whale even need wings, makes you wonder" he said. Nathan looked at the fossil and wondered to himself what the creature may have at one point looked like. Although none of the pictures that he came up with were very attractive but still it was interesting to try and come up with ideas as to the creature's appearance might have been.

Nathan was broken out of his thoughts when Waltfield spoke "But as fascinating as that thing may be it's also caused quite a bit of problems or at least in my opinion" he said much to Kira's confusion

"What do you mean?" the young Coordinator asked but the Desert Tiger just gestured to the artifact again "You don't' agree? It was only because they found this bloody thing that that all this hope was opened up, that the possibility of humans being able to go much further than we already have, of course that's partially what started this whole damned war" he said.

"What do you mean?" the young Coordinator asked but the Desert Tiger just gestured to the artifact again "You don't' agree? It was only because they found this bloody thing that that all this hope was opened up, that the possibility of humans being able to go much further than we already have, of course that's partially what started this whole damned war" he said.

The Raven pilot looked at the commander with a perplexed look on his face. He wasn't expecting the legendary Desert Tiger to be such a philosopher in regards to these sort of things.

Nathan then heard the door open behind him and he saw something that he never thought that he'd ever see in his entire life. Cagalli walked in, wearing a pale green dress. Although Nathan had only known the girl for a few days he instantly knew that the chief representative's daughter would under any other circumstances be caught dead wearing something like that.

Kira however looked much more shocked than Nathan was and he then said something incredibly stupid "You're a girl?" he asked stupidly while Nathan face palmed _'Kira you idiot'_ he thought to himself.

This made Cagalli absolutely livid "What the hell did you just say?" she demanded angrily. Kira put his hands in front of him defensively and in a desperate attempt to cover his tracks he said "Uh, I mean that this reminds me that you're a girl"

Unfortunately that statement did little to help in fact it only managed to make things even worse for him "That basically amounts to the same thing you jackass!" she roared in fury while shaking her fist in front of her which worried Kira while Nathan raised an eyebrow at the scene in front of him. The adults in the room quickly started laughing at the scene in front of them. Even the normally stoic Nathan was having a difficult time keeping his laughter held in.

After Waltfield and his girlfriend calmed down they sat down at the table. The commander looked over at Cagalli and said "That outfit suits you, and it would seem that you're very accustomed to wearing fine clothing like that" he said taking another sip of his coffee.

Nathan figured that the Desert Tiger was subtly bating the hotheaded girl and so far it was working like a charm but for what he wasn't certain. "Say what you want" she grumbled while Kira looked a little nervously at the girl who's temper was slowly beginning to rise. "You know, you're the perfect little lady until you speak" he said with a hint of humor in his voice.

"Just what were you doing out there anyways?" she asked "Wearing a disguise and following us around town or having residents evacuate a town before burning it to the ground that's what I mean?"

Nathan face palmed himself in frustration. If the Desert Tiger didn't know who they were earlier, he sure as hell did right now. However the man said something rather strange "You have a lovely pair of eyes, they have a very sincere look" he said much to everyone's confusion.

Cagalli just ignored him and banged her fist onto the table "Don't you dare toy with me!"

Andrew Waltfield's eyes narrowed almost angrily and Nathan had a feeling that they probably weren't going to leave this room alive.

"I guess you're one of those types. The ones that would rather be dead than still living" he said in a stern and somewhat intimidating tone. He then turned his head over to Kira who appeared nervous when the Desert Tiger's gaze met his own which made Kira look somewhat uncomfortable.

"Well then boy, what do you think about all of this? What do you think has to be done in order for this war to finally end?" Waltfield asked but Kira didn't really know how to respond to that sort of a question and said nothing.

"I'm asking you as a fellow mobile suit pilot now I'll ask you again, what do you think is needed for this war to end?" he asked causing almost everyone in the room to just stare at the enemy commander in disbelief that he somehow knew that Kira was the pilot of the Strike.

_'This_ _explains everything'_ thought Nathan. Ever since he saw the man he had been wondering to himself as to why it was that that guy had been following them around in the market and now it all made sense, Waltfield had known that they were both pilots from the beginning. This begged the question: how in the hell did that guy manage to figure out who they were?

Waltfield got off of his seat and walked over to a nearby desk and as he opened it he said "Unlike in sports, war has no time limit and there sure as hell aren't any kind of points awarded to either side. So tell me how do you determine the winners and the losers, eh Red Eyed Devil is it when all enemies have been eliminated?" he asked pulling out an automatic pistol and aiming it squarely at them.

The three teens already gotten up off of the couch and Kira placed himself in front of Cagalli hoping that when Waltfield fired his pistol, that the bullets wouldn't punch straight through him and hit the girl standing behind him. Nathan however stayed off to the side a bit thinking that if the commander decided to shoot that he'd target him first which would give Kira and Cagalli a small but decent chance at survival. However he felt that he had to answer the commander's question

"There aren't any winners or losers in war, only survivors to carry on the legacy of those who have fallen. As for your other question wars can only end when people have had enough of the bloodshed" he explained reciting something that Mira had told him once a couple of years ago while Waltfield let out a hearty chuckle and gave them all a kind hearted smile.

"That's a very good answer, to be honest I never thought that the Red Eyed Devil could be so philosophical" he said before lowering down the gun and putting it back in his desk. After the desk drawer shut Kira and his friends then heard the door open right behind them. They turned and saw Aisha smiling at them while standing at the side of the door.

"I really enjoyed talking with all of you, you can leave now" said Waltfield before his guests made their way warily to the door. Before the trio even got within four feet they heard Waltfield speak up from behind them.

"By the way" he said which caused Kira and the others to halt their advance to the exit "I look forward to seeing you again on the field of battle, Gundam pilot" the commander said with a slight grin on his face while Kira just looked at Waltfield a little nervously at what was just said.

To be continued.


	15. Battle Plans and Time Off

Armored Seed

Chapter 15

Battle Plans and Time Off

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the Black Skulls

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><p>-Lesseps Mess Hall-<p>

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><p>Commander Charles Lockhart and the rest of the Hydras had finally been moved to Andrew Waltfield's headquarters on the Lesseps. They had gotten the communication from the Desert Tiger just a few days ago and had been told to wait for him in his command unit the Lesseps. When they entered the land based battleship, Lockhart couldn't help but admire the massive machine.<p>

The rest of his unit knew that Lockhart would more than likely kill over a thousand people just so that he could get his hands on something that was half as impressive as the Lesseps. At the current moment however, he and most of his unit were trying to eat the 'food' in the cafeteria of the land based battleship.

Harold however was merely poking the food he had on his tray with a fork with an inquisitive look on his face while looking at the food that his squad members had gotten rather strangely.

"I hate this shit" he muttered to himself angrily looking at the somewhat bizarre food that they had been given by the chef before turning to the commander of their little outfit "Hey boss why do we have to eat this shit for anyways?" asked Harold before the commander turned and spared the drug addict an annoyed look.

"Because you dumbass after we lost the Orbital we lost access to any sort of decent food so for now we have to rely on whatever the hell our employers supply us. So if you want to spend all of your hard earned cash on a night on the town, go right ahead and do that or quit being a fucking baby and eat before I have Faulkner here shove this food down your throat along with the tray that you're eating off of" he threatened while Faulkner grumbled an agreement that almost sounded like a faint roar.

Harold flinched a little at the threat and resolved to just continue eating his food quietly. The rest of the meal continued in silence for a few more seconds before Katrina perked up after taking a bite of her food.

"Well I do have to say one thing about ZAFT they sure do have some handsome soldiers" she said looking at a nearby table where some pilots were eating but a few heard her and looked at the bombshell with strange looks on their faces that seemed to be a mix between attraction and confusion. Katrina gave the soldiers a wink and subtly licked her lips lustrously.

The rest of the unit rolled their eyes at her. Everyone one in the Hydras knew that Katrina was probably the most promiscuous woman that any of them had ever met in their entire lives. However despite Katrina's obvious off duty tendencies Lockhart tolerated her because she was a top notch pilot despite her nightly "Activities".

"Katrina if you keep having sex with every single guy you happen to come across, you're probably going to get STDs" Lockhart said but the purple haired mercenary just waved him off as though it wasn't that important to her "That's why I have my boy toys wear condoms before we play" before Lockhart looked genuinely surprised. He honestly didn't think that she thought that far ahead at times "I hadn't expected something like that from you lady" he said raising an eyebrow at the promiscuous mercenary.

Despite the female pilot's unique 'Traits' she was not only just a first rate pilot and was highly skilled at gathering information from reliable and normally tightlipped sources and although she never told anyone how she got her normally spot on info, but the remaining Hydras all had a pretty decent idea on how it was that Katrina went about acquiring it.

"Well what can I say? I like to do things that people never expect" she said with a sly grin and almost inaudible giggle. This made Harold raise an eyebrow _'I don't even want to know what she means by that'_ he thought to himself trying to leave it at that before going back to eating his paste like food.

After taking a few more bites of the 'food' that he had been served, Harold then felt a slight pang of an unsettled stomach and at first he just thought that it was probably just the low class food getting to him but then it began to increase exponentially. This caused Harold to grip his stomach as he felt as though he was going to puke his guts out all over the table. However this feeling quickly began to change however when the pain in his stomach became accompanied by his right hand which had begun to shake almost uncontrollably.

Harold gritted his teeth as he grabbed the shaking limb with his other arm in an effort to try and still it. This didn't work however and now his veins were beginning to pulsate up against the skin of both of his arms as though they were attempting to pop right out of his body. At first it was only the veins in his arms but it slowly traveled throughout his body and eventually even the veins on his face began to press up against the skin. It looked as though the man's blood vessels were trying to force their way out of his body.

Harold's eyes widened he couldn't deny it any longer he was getting withdrawal symptoms "Damn, damn, damn" Harold continued to mutter almost incoherently as he fished a small syringe out of his pocket that was filled with a precious orange liquid and all but shoved the needle of the medical device into his forearm arm and pushed down on the injection mechanism just before the headache portion of his withdrawals had started. This sent enough of the combat stimulant into Harold's system to ward off the withdrawal effects but not enough to cause him to turn into a berserker like he sometimes would become when he was in combat.

After he finished injecting himself with the drug he let out the breath that he had been holding in. when Harold looked up he saw that almost all of the other ZAFT soldiers and pilots in the mess hall were looking at him strangely. Their curiosity quickly pissed Harold off. How dare they judge him, the one who had experienced first hand the bliss of warfare to its finest while they cowered and refused to embrace the euphoric feeling of absolute power every time that a life was snuffed out on the battlefield.

They continued to look at him despite the semi-crazed look that covered his face. After a few seconds of their staring though Harold had had more than enough of them. He got up off of his seat and shouted "Don't fucking stare at me!" this caused the other soldiers to start believing that it would be in their best interests to not try and antagonize the nearly psychotic man so they simply returned to whatever it was that they had been doing all the while hoping that the drug fueled mercenary didn't try to do anything, 'spontaneous' or ' completely insane'.

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><p>-Archangel-<p>

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><p>It had been several hours since Kira, Cagalli and Nathan had gone on their little intelligence gatheringshopping trip to the main town that housed the Lesseps. Once they had arrived back at the Archangel they all saw that Flay was waiting right there for them probably ever since she had finished her duties and sim training. The minute that Kira had exited the jeep she immediately moved in and embraced Kira saying that she had been worried about him. Nathan almost smiled at the scene in front of him but he kept his emotions in check but just barely.

"Kira where have you been?" she snapped almost angrily but everyone there could easily tell that she had been very worried about him. Kira quickly got a sheepish look on his face and said "It's kind of a long story would it be alright if I could talk to you in private about it?" he asked. Flay nodded and the two headed towards their now shared quarters.

While Kira began to take his girlfriend back into the ship for a good chat, Nathan headed back inside the ship only to be confronted yet again by Carmen. The Raven pilot really wasn't in the mood for the medical officer's antics at the moment. Almost every time something like this had happened, whether it was something as simple as not checking in every once and a while or doing things that she considered to be risky in combat she would rant at him to try and change his ways for what she believed to be for the better.

Before his surrogate sister could manage to mouth out a word Nathan interrupted her "Not now Carmen I'm not in the mood for yet another ranting session" the pilot continued on his path a little more but was stopped when he heard her say something that he wasn't expecting from the older woman.

"Good job keeping them safe" she said with a smile on her face. Nathan turned to look at the woman a little surprised at the praise since she usually ranted at Nathan telling him to be more careful and telling him what he should have done instead, the Raven pilot however decided that it wouldn't be best to question what she had just done and instead simply accepted that she was just having a good day or something.

Nathan then turned and looked at Carmen almost giving her a smile before he gave the chief medical officer a sincere "Thank you". He then continued to head back to his quarters, intent on trying to get some sleep before an attack occurred on the Archangel for what would probably be the millionth time since they got out of Heliopolis.

As he walked through the ship he saw a couple of Kira's friends walking down one of the corridors, Mir and Tolle to be precise and they ran up to him "So what happened out there? Is everyone alright?" Nathan sighed while he attempted to figure out just what it was that he should and shouldn't tell them.

Since Kira was probably going to tell Flay the whole story he sighed and began to tell them what had exactly happened at the town that they had gone to visit for supplies and groceries.

Kira had finally entered the room that he was now currently sharing with Flay, ever since they had landed the two of them were practically inseparable when they weren't on duty. The young Coordinator sat down on the side of the bed and he began to retell the tale of what exactly had happened while they were out. Once Kira had finished almost an hour later the red haired girl suddenly embraced Kira with such force that it caused the young Coordinator to lose his balance and fall backwards onto the bed with Flay on top of him.

"I'm so glad you're alright" she said happily. Ever since Kira and the others had been declared overdue Flay couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened to him and even training in the Beta's simulation unit hadn't managed to take her mind off of Kira. When she heard that he was finally coming back she decided to wait in the hanger until he had arrived.

Aside from the mechanics that were there performing their duties on the many machines that were in the hanger she was really the only one there waiting for Kira. The one and only reason that Kira's other friends weren't waiting along with her was a simple one. They still had duties to perform on the ship and since hers were light at the very most so she would have more than enough time to spare between waiting for Kira and training in the Beta's simulator.

Now all Flay wanted was her boyfriend to hold her in his arms. Kira meanwhile had no complaints about this and just held the red haired girl in his arms and the two of them slowly drifted off to sleep still in each other's arms.

It was an almost perfect sight and as this occurred Li was in the hanger when she suddenly felt that she was missing something interesting that was going on with her little project. However she shrugged it off, she'd find out about it sooner or later.

* * *

><p>-Lesseps Hanger the next day-<p>

* * *

><p>Dearka and Yzak entered the hanger of the Lesseps, almost everywhere in the massive land battleship's hanger one could see at least a few BuCUEs and even some GINNs but while they walked towards their own machines they saw several armored cores, but its emblem which was unlike that of the Black Skulls instead had a dark yellow hydra with five heads. They also saw about four people who were most likely the pilots working on them. Apparently they didn't trust ZAFT's mechanics to repair or refit their machines.<p>

The two ZAFT pilots saw a some members of the engineering corps who were sitting on some crates that were sitting nearby watching the mercenaries ready their equipment for tomorrow's battle and walked over to them hoping to get some information about what it was that those AC's were doing.

"Hey you two!" Dearka called out getting the attention of a pair of technical officers who were standing nearby. The two soldiers ran over to them and gave them a sharp salute "Sir what do you need?" asked one of them. Dearka gestured towards the AC's that were in dry-dock.

"What do know about those guys over there?" he asked but the other engineer shrugged "We don't really know much about them sir. They just showed up a couple of days ago saying that they were under contract by commander Le Creuset or something like that" when Dearka gave him a look that meant that he wanted more information the engineer gave him a reassuring look.

"I'm sorry sir but that's about all I really know " he said with a shrug.

After taking a good long look at the AC's one of the four hired guns who was working his weapon's gun barrels looked at the new arrivals before he headed down to where the two pilots were standing. As the man got off his machine Dearka and Yzak got a better look at him. His hair was very closely cropped and he had a very wild look about him as though he was more like some kind of an animal rather than a normal human being.

When the man opened his mouth his voice sounded somewhat hoarse, as if he had been yelling constantly for hours or at least that's what it sounded like to Dearka and Yzak. "Well, well, well if it isn't the biggest dumbass incompetents in the entirety of ZAFT's military" he said in a condescending tone while giving the two pilots a mean spirited smirk.

The Hydras had read the reports on the Legged Ship that they had been tasked by commander Le Creuset with destroying as well as how the two pilots had been performing on the mission. Needless to say all four of the Hydra Raven unit were completely unimpressed with their sloppy performances.

Although Dearka managed to resist the urge to respond to the verbal barb that the Raven pilot gave the two of them, Yzak however, due to his impulsiveness and hotheaded nature easily fell for the man's taunts "What the hell did you say?" he demanded but the pilot opposite of him just shrugged while he continued to smirk as if to say that he didn't understand what the white haired boy was getting so upset over.

"What? Everyone here is thinking it, the _great_ Le Creuset team has been beaten several times for the past month, if it were us we would have eliminated the Archangel and the Strike by now and gotten ourselves one hell of a paycheck if they had hired us for the Heliopolis op. Oh well, at least your commander finally came to his senses and realized that you two would only be good as cannon fodder"

Yzak had been completely drawn in by the Raven pilot's verbal jabs and was about to walk up and throw a punch at the merc but Dearka grabbed his arm as Yzak raised it trying to prevent his friend from ending up in the brig.

"We'll deal with the little bastard later" he assured his friend quietly which seemed to have calmed the normally hot headed pilot down a little after hearing that, much to the Raven pilot's disappointment. Harold had been hoping that he'd be able to beat the shit out of someone before going out into combat.

And since it had been quite some time that he had gone up against ZAFT and he was more than eager to beat the living shit out of something while he waited for the bliss of battle to begin tomorrow, the Raven wasn't willing to let either of the two pilot's get away until he'd had a good fight with them. Harold was about to open his mouth again to begin a new round of insults when he heard Faulkner's voice coming from his machine.

"Lieutenant O'Connor cease your stupidity now or I promise that I'll personally have you crucified and left right out in the middle of fucking desert!" the large intimidating man's voice boomed through the speakers in the machine. The threat alone was more than enough to shut the pilot up and convince him to leave the two Coordinators alone.

Another one of the Ravens exited his Armored core and went down towards the two Coordinators. The mercenary appeared to be the leader of the group. The man had slicked back blond hair and emerald green eyes. He walked right up to the pair of ZAFT pilots.

"I apologize for my subordinates behavior he often acts like this when he hasn't had the chance to kill something for a while" he explained but before the two pilots could respond the leader of the mercenaries continued to speak "We've been assigned to your squadron until the Legged Ship has been captured or destroyed, whichever comes first. So for the time being try to get along with the rest of my subordinates and we will show you the same courtesy" he insisted politely.

Despite the mercenary commander's polite words the man had nothing but complete and utter contempt for what he saw as simply two very incompetent and near useless pilots that should have _disappeared_ in a dark alleyway a very long time ago. But it was no matter those two pilots might actually prove to be useful distractions against the enemy or perhaps even as meat shields for Lockhart and the rest of his men.

"Thank you Mr.…" Dearka trailed off before the man gave a weak chuckle and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry my name is commander Charles Lockhart, I'm the leader of the Hydras" he said before he went on "Now although I would very much like to stay and chat with you but I'm afraid that I must be getting back to my work" he said before walking back to his machine before either of the pilots could even respond to what the mercenary commander had even said.

* * *

><p>-Lesseps, Andrew Waltfield's office-<p>

* * *

><p>The Desert Tiger's forces were getting prepared for tomorrows battle with the Archangel. This time they were hoping that they'd be able to finally be able to finish off the Earth Forces ship. Commander Waltfield sat in his office looking over the transfer reports and frowned. He saw that two members from the Le Creuset team and the Raven unit known as the Hydras were joining him. It turned out that the mercenaries were hired by the masked commander and that they had been hired in order to help his team take out that ship.<p>

He looked through the files of the mercs and found that the more he read about them the less he liked them. Most of their missions had high amounts of civilian casualties, even when they just had to take out a handful of targets that weren't even near populated areas. They always managed to get at least one civilian killed when they went into combat. It was like they were setting a personal goal to cause as much collateral damage as they could during missions.

However nothing could be done about it now and when they headed into combat tomorrow there wouldn't be any civilians for them to indiscriminately slaughter. His second in command lieutenant commander DaCosta noticed that the commander was agitated.

"Sir is there a problem?" he asked causing Waltfield's frown to deepen ever further.

"Yeah I guess you could say that, we just got some reinforcements from Gibraltar you know, those guys who basically just want to try and cash in on being the ones who helped to take down the Legged Ship which also includes two members of the Le Creuset team as well as a Raven group called the Hydras" he explained much to DaCosta's confusion, normally Waltfield wasn't one to get irritated about having some additional reinforcements before or during a battle.

"I don't think that I really see the problem with that commander" said the red haired man with a raised eyebrow. Ordinarily DaCosta wouldn't mind using Ravens so long as they got the job done right and kept civilian casualties down to a minimum.

"Have a look at the files we have on the Hydras yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about, and as for the two Le Creuset team members that made it down to Earth, they're only experienced in space combat they'll be near useless in a ground fight" Waltfield explained while handing his second in command the file that held all of the information on the Raven group that had arrived with them.

DaCosta was only two or three pages into the file and he could already see why his commanding officer was frustrated with just having mass murderers like them being anywhere nearby.

"And guess who hired and assigned them to us?" asked Waltfield. DaCosta gave a mock look of thought and said "Gee I don't know does his name have a Le Creuset in it?" he asked trying to break the ice a little. Waltfield sighed and covered his face in his hands "Have I mentioned to you that I really hate that guy?" Waltfield asked, his voice muffled while his second in command cocked an eyebrow.

"Only after the twenty seventh time you've mentioned it sir" he joked while Waltfield rolled his eyes at his subordinate.

* * *

><p>-Archangel cafeteria-<p>

* * *

><p>Cagalli was sitting down at one of the tables in the Cafeteria eating her lunch since she had already completed her duties onboard the Archangel and her work in the Skygrasper's simulator. She saw one of Kira's friends, Mir she thought the girl's name was coming over to her and sitting down across form where she was sitting.<p>

Mir took a bite out of her lunch and swallowed before she asked "So is it true that you're the daughter of Orb's chief representative?" she asked almost causing Cagalli to groan and cover her head with her in an effort to cover up a headache that she felt was coming, she hated it when other people did this, once someone found out who she was they automatically treated her like royalty which annoyed her to no end.

"Yes I am. Now could you please don't treat me like I'm some kind of royalty okay?" she said in exasperation while Mir looked a little confused "So then what do I call you?" she asked politely not really knowing what kind of alias that Cagalli had been using ever since she joined up with the rebels.

"Just Cagalli" she said before Kira's other friends aside from both Flay and Kira who were currently in the combat simulator of their machines, entered the cafeteria and joined in the conversation that Mir and Cagalli were having. The group continued to chat about somewhat mundane things. As they talked Cagalli could see why Kira liked these guys they were kind and very easy to talk to and get along with.

"So has anyone seen Kira or Flay around?" asked Kuzzey, "Their still in the hanger, Nathan and Cross are having them do more combat simulations" Cagalli explained having just gotten back from a training simulation in one of the two Skygraspers that they had in the hanger.

"How do you think Flay and Kira are doing now?" Tolle wondered aloud.

As if by some bizarre twist of fate Flay and Kira walked into the cafeteria mere seconds after Tolle had finished his sentence. Both of them looked somewhat tired but Flay seemed to be a much more out of it than Kira was. The red haired girl sat down on one of the nearby seats where her friends were sitting and rested her head on her arms with closed eyes "Flay are you alright?" asked Sai.

The red haired girl groaned and spoke, her words slightly muffled by her arms "Don't talk to me right now…sleepy…" she said before giving out a yawn and then going back to her resting position causing everyone to watch the little display with bemusement etched on their faces.

Kira however seemed to be much more awake than Flay was but that was probably because the fact that he'd been piloting longer than Flay had been and besides she had to get up at five in the morning in order to begin training while he had to get up three hours later.

Mir looked over at Kira who also looked very tired but didn't seem to be as wiped out as Flay was. "So, Kira how's the simulator training that Nathan's putting the two of you through?" asked Kuzzey, Kira turned his head over to his friend and let out an exhausted breath. The two of them had just gotten out of the simulator and all that Kira wanted to do at the moment was sit down and relax, not go and talk about the training that he had just gone through but it was a valid question.

"He's having us go through almost ten different combat scenarios to test our adaptability in combat. He says that we're both doing pretty well and that Flay should be ready for combat in a little less than a week from now" he said still not really knowing what to think about the fact that Flay was going to be in combat alongside him.

He promised that he wouldn't let her die like her father and the civilians that were on the shuttle did, he realized recently that he would fight to the death to protect Flay and Kira had been getting the feeling that she would do the same for him.

* * *

><p>-Archangel hangers-<p>

* * *

><p>Mu was looking at Nathan who had begun to adjust some of the Lucifer's systems for the millionth time, the fighter ace was wondering if the guy was some sort of a workaholic Kira and Flay had left the hanger quite some time ago but Nathan had remained behind to adjust his armored core.<p>

"Hey Nathan!" he called causing the red eyed boy to turn and look up from what he was doing over at commander La Flaga "Yes commander?" he asked wondering what it was the man wanted.

"You've been working on that thing for what? The past four hours?" he asked. Nathan raised an eyebrow at La Flaga not really knowing where it was he was going with this.

"The past four and a half hours commander La Flaga, I just want the Lucifer to be ready for heavy fighting" he said but the commander shrugged and continued to watch the Raven pilot work on his equipment "Just the same kid don't you think you should take a break?" he asked before Nathan looked back up from what he was doing and at the commander.

"No, I need to make sure that in the next battle that I can terminate the Duel's pilot" he said.

Mu raised an eyebrow. "Any reason for that particular target?" he asked curiously before Nathan gave him a look that radiated anger or even hate when he spoke about the pilot of the Duel. "The man piloting it shot down a civilian transport without warning or hesitation and as punishment I'm going to kill him for it" Nathan said putting his intentions very bluntly.

"So you're going to kill him?" Mu asked while Nathan adopted a slightly puzzled look on his face "That's what I just said so yes"

Then Mu remembered what captain Hackett had said about what had happened when Nathan's girlfriend was killed at Junius Seven. That boy had brutally murdered the Blue Cosmos cell that was responsible for its destruction and despite that Nathan continued to blame himself for what had happened so it shouldn't have come as any surprise that he'd be incredibly pissed at the person who had blown up that shuttle.

Mu hoped that the kid just wouldn't get himself killed when he tried to avenge those who had died on that ship when they had made their way back down to Earth.

* * *

><p>To be continued<p> 


	16. Blood in the Sand

Armored Seed

Chapter 16

Blood in the Sands

Disclaimer: I neither Gundam Seed nor any of the Armored Core video games but I do own the Black Skulls

A/N: Oh…my…God this is probably one of the longest chapters I have ever written so I hope that you all appreciate the amount of work that I put into it.

PS. Flay may act a little OOC in this chapter but trust me it's for the best.

* * *

><p>-Desert Dawn, Frontline base-<p>

* * *

><p>The resistance fighters were all in a complete rush. They had to get as many of their weapons and equipment that they could scrounge up before the day's battle could begin. Even some of the family members of the resistance fighters were helping them with some of the work load.<p>

Family members that ranged from children no older than ten to almost middle aged adults who had wanted to try and help the rebels as much as they could helped to carry various equipment over to the jeeps and halftracks were and giving the weapons, ammo and medical supplies to them all the while telling friends and loved ones to stay safe and to come back alive. Kisaka was also helping as he carried an rocket launcher slung over his shoulder along with an ammo box that contained three additional shots worth of ammunition in his other hand and headed over too the jeep that they were to be using in today's battle.

He placed the anti vehicle weapon and some of its ammunition in the back of the jeep so that the primary gunner would have better access to it. As he did he saw one of the villager's from Tassel whom Kisaka instantly recognized as Ahmed's mother hand over something to Cagalli. In fact the older woman seemed to be very emotional about giving it to her but Kisaka couldn't see Cagalli's reaction to getting whatever it was she had been given from where he was standing. The bodyguard saw that most of the other resistance fighters had already finished their packing and were beginning to mount up on what vehicles they had left.

"Hey Cagalli come on we're getting ready to move!" yelled Kisaka which got the girl's attention and making her run over to where he was standing. She grabbed a spare RPG that had been leaning against the jeep and quickly loaded the weapon. She flipped the weapon's safety on as she didn't want the thing to off prematurely as they drove into combat before placing it next to the one that Kisaka had acquired. Kisaka immediately got into the driver's seat while Cagalli sat in the seat that was situated next to him.

Behind them the Archangel's engines began to let out a roaring noise as it slowly began to lift out of the small canyon that it had been staying in for the past several days. As the Archangel ascended Sahib signaled the resistance fighters to move out in front. And they did, the small fleet of jeeps and halftracks leading the way in front of the Archangel.

As Kisaka drove with the rest of the resistance fighters he noticed that Cagalli was holding something in her hands that resembled a gemstone or a diamond but Kisaka couldn't really be sure, rocks weren't in his area of expertise. Curiosity eventually got the better of him, Kisaka asked "What's that?"

Cagalli looked up from the stone that she had been given by her friend's mother and over at Kisaka for a moment before turning back to look at the object in her hands "It's something that my friend Ahmed was going to give me" she explained before continuing "His mother said that this was made out of malachite and that Ahmed had intended on carving something out of it"

The blond haired girl then thought back to when Ahmed had died, the look on the boy's face as Nathan pulled the trigger and fired the bullet that had mercifully ended his life. Although at first Cagalli wanted to hurt the Raven pilot, to just punch him repeatedly until…she didn't know when, but at first Nathan didn't even seem to have cared about the life he had ended even though tears were spilling down his face like raindrops.

* * *

><p><em>That same day Cagalli was going to go to Ahmed's mother to give her the bad news but when she heard crying coming from inside the quarters that Ahmed's mother had been given after the destruction of Tassel, getting suspicious she opened the door a little so that she could see what was going on inside but not enough that whoever was inside could know she was there.<em>

_She saw Nathan sitting down across from Ahmed's mother who was crying "I am truly sorry for everything that happened ma'am but I can only hope that you understand that I was only trying to end his suffering" he said but all it sounded like to Cagalli was that he was making excuses or at least that's what it sounded like to her but her tune changed when she heard his next sentence._

_"I know that nothing I say can ever take the pain away but I hope that you know that your son was probably one of the bravest people that I have ever known and I can only pray that gives you some comfort" he said sincerely before Ahmed's mother asked why he shot him. Nathan took in a breath before he spoke _

"_If I chose to try and take him to the Archangel for treatment it would have been too late to save him so I offered him an alternative to dying slowly so I asked him if he wanted me to end it then and there rather than a prolonged death and he chose quickly and I abided by his wishes even though in almost every fiber of my being I wanted to just try and get him back the Archangel I knew that he would be dead by the time we got there. You can think what you will of me, hate me, don't hate me, just please try and understand why I did what I did for your son"_

* * *

><p>After Nathan was finished with his sentence Ahmed's mother forgave him much to Cagalli's surprise she hadn't expected her to forgive him just like that. Cagalli hid herself when she noticed that Nathan was heading for the door. Once Nathan had left Cagalli went in and talked with Ahmed's mother for a while, trying to give her some comfort as well.<p>

* * *

><p>-Archangel, hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>Flay was in her pilot suit and was walking towards the Beta which, for some reason was right next to the Strike, as she walked towards her AC she saw Kira getting ready to pilot his own machine. Kira looked at her and probably saw that she was nervous, this was going to be her first combat mission after all. The time with the Desert Dawn didn't count because she wasn't in any of the combat.<p>

"You alright Flay?" he asked. Flay looked over at her boyfriend and said "Yeah I'm fine it's just that I'm a little nervous about this Kira" causing the young Coordinator to give her a comforting smile "I get like that every time I go into the Strike" he explained while he knew that he still hadn't gotten used to taking someone else's life.

Although Flay had already known that since Kira was probably one of the most kind and gentle individuals that she had ever known in her entire life and she had been a fool to treat him badly because of how he was born into the world. Flay leaned in and gave Kira a small affectionate peck on the cheek causing him to blush a small shade of red. "Thanks for that Kira" Flay said with a sincere smile on her face.

The two were broken out of their conversation when commander Cross shouted "The two of you can make out later, for right now though just get in your god damned machines!" he ordered causing them both to blush for a second before they both ran for their machines so that they could get ready for the battle that everyone was predicting would occur today.

* * *

><p>-Lesseps, bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Andrew Waltfield was calmly sipping a cup of coffee while he waited for the two members of the Le Creuset team along with the Hydra squadron to get up onto the bridge. Eventually the door slid open with a slight mechanical hissing noise and all six of the pilots walked in. the Hydras and the two Le Creuset team members gave the Desert Tiger a salute before he motioned them to stop.<p>

The first one to speak up was Lockhart "Thank you for having us aboard your ship commander Waltfield my men and I are eager to get this show on the road" he said politely but his tone carried a small hint of condescension in it. Waltfield knew for a fact that this man had as much distaste for how he did things on the battlefield and to be perfectly honest the feeling was mutual however both of them had a kind of respect for another's skills on the battlefield.

"Not a problem commander Lockhart, it'll be good to have your skill set during this fight" he replied trying to mask his distaste for the mercenaries.

Waltfield then walked up the two members of the Le Creuset team. The two of them saluted again and recited their names and ranks. The Desert Tiger gave a hearty chuckle "I thought I told you two to be at ease" he said before noticing the scar on Yzak's face "When one doesn't have a nasty scar removed one might say that it's a symbol of commitment" Waltfield stated before Harold started to chuckle for a second "Or in that incompetent's case embarrassment and failure" he said giving the boy a mean spirited smirk

Yzak looked like he was about to respond to that little comment but remembered that he was in the presence of a superior officer and although he normally didn't really give a damn he knew that Waltfield wouldn't tolerate that kind of behavior from his subordinates. So the white haired soldier ignored the verbal barbs that the drug addicted Raven had just given them.

Waltfield looked back at the mercenaries and was about to say something when Lockhart spoke up "I apologize for the lieutenant's behavior he normally get's edgy before a battle but I'll make sure that it doesn't happen again with you around sir" he said before glancing at Faulkner who got the message and nodded telling the commander that he'd make sure that Harold behaved himself even if he had to rip the idiot's tongue out in order to do so.

A few moments later one of the bridge staff members called out.

"Sir I have confirmation on the Archangel!" said the Lessep's sensor officer. Waltfield walked over to the man along with the Hydras and Dearka and Yzak. They looked at the monitor and saw several jeeps leading in front of the Archangel which was following close behind them "Where are they headed soldier?" asked Waltfield.

The man quickly typed something in on his command console and turned to the commander and said "It looks like their headed north to north east" the Desert Tiger then stroked his chin "It sounds like their headed for the old abandoned factory district. Well I can't say that I wouldn't do the same thing if I was in their position, if was their commander I would try and plow right through us" he said. He looked up from the console and said "Alright we're moving out right now!"

* * *

><p>-Archangel hanger a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira was waiting patiently inside the Strike, waiting for the battle to start. For him this was the worst part of any combat situation, waiting for something to happen, anticipating that something might happen in the next second or two. It used to almost cause him to panic but now it wasn't as bad as it used to be even though it still made him slightly nervous.<p>

The young Coordinator began to wonder just how Flay was feeling in a situation like this. He activated the communications unit and saw Flay's face. Almost immediately the girl tried to cover up her unease by giving him a calm look but knew that Kira already knew how it was she was feeling.

"Hi Flay, how're you feeling?" he asked. Flay gave her boyfriend a nervous smile and said "I'm still a little nervous about this, this is my first time in a combat situation remember?"

Kira gave her a kind smile "It gets better as time goes on" he assured which seemed to eliminate some of the nervousness that Flay was feeling. It was true Kira had gotten much more used to waiting for the battle to come but there was one thing that he could never get over, the killing. Even now he still hated having to take another person's life and the fact that it was getting easier to do so disturbed him, he didn't want to end up as some insane killer who only wanted to fight for the sheer joy of doing that.

The ship shook slightly for a second and everyone in a machine then heard lieutenant Natarle's voice come through the communications systems "Commander La Flaga head for the launch ramp the battle has started!" she ordered. Fortunately the Skygrasper was already on the launch ramp equipped with the launcher package, the Agni cannon's massive frame was tucked underneath the Skygrasper's left wing "Mu La Flaga, launching!" said the pilot before he was catapulted straight out of the Archangel and into the desert sky.

Once the Skygrasper had cleared the launcher Mu pulled back on the joystick sending the Skygrasper higher up into the skies. As he went he saw a couple dozen attack helicopters making their way for the Archangel. He veered to the right with his Skygrasper and opened fire with the Agni cannon sending two or three of the enemy choppers into oblivion.

As he continued downwards to try and eliminate another group of choppers he saw almost all of the Armored Cores that were stationed aboard the Archangel along with the Strike had already finished launching straight out of the ship and had just begun to engage the helicopters and the approaching BuCUEs.

Flay didn't really know what to expect when she had cleared the catapult. When she got out she saw a couple dozen enemy mobile suits plus a combat carrier but the other Skulls were dealing with them already. Her machine shook as machinegun rounds pounded onto the Beta's armored plating from some of the helicopters overhead. The machinegun rounds from the choppers only managed to scratch off some of the Beta's paint a little.

The red haired girl turned her AC's head to where the Helicopters were firing from and raised her semi auto rifle up and aimed at the closest one. There was a half second delay before the targeting retical finished locking on to the target. She pulled the trigger back three times sending three shots out of the rifle and into the enemy helicopter. The damage that the aircraft took was quite remarkable, the first shot went straight through the chopper's cockpit and out through the tail of the machine. The second hit the rotor and the third hit one of the wings that carried its missile launchers.

This made the ZAFT aircraft go down in flames. Flay targeted another enemy chopper and opened fire on the target. Remembering her training she noticed that the enemy was closer than the last helicopter so Flay used her AC's SMG instead of the semi auto rifle. Dozens of oversized bullets tore through the helicopter as though its armor was little more than tissue paper. Once the other helicopter went down in flames Flay allowed herself to relax a little bit.

She was about to go and join the main battle but a voice on her communicator told her otherwise "Flay you're to stay here and provide cover the Archangel" ordered Cross.

"But Cross I-" Flay started before the commander stopped her "No buts miss Allster, and whenever it is we're in the field you will call me commander Cross or sir, do you understand?" he yelled glowering in frustration.

Flay looked down in resignation, did they really just think she was some kind of damsel in distress or something? However it wasn't a matter of any discussion at the moment, she promised Nathan that she'd obey their orders "I understand commander Cross" she said before changing course to stay with the Archangel.

* * *

><p>-Lesseps-<p>

* * *

><p>Andrew Waltfield was already in his pilot suit and was preparing to head out in his own personal unit, a customized LaGOWE which was a slightly larger version of the BuCUE. His LaGOWE was painted a bright orange color which in any other area of the planet would make the LaGOWE just an enormous target but out in the desert sands it could easily blend in to some of the surroundings.<p>

Just as he and Aisha were about to climb aboard the unit he saw that the two pilots from the Le Creuset team coming towards them. The commander immediately knew what they wanted. The two of them wanted to join in the battle to eliminate the Archangel and its escorts. The white haired one, Yzak was his name stepped forward "Commander what the hell is going on, why are we just staying with the Lesseps?" he demanded almost angrily while Waltfield smirked

"Do all members of the Le Creuset team question their orders or are you just special?" he asked. Yzak stifled a growl and responded "No sir but we've gone up against that ship much more than you or the Hydras, we should be going out there as well!" he said almost angrily.

Waltfield rolled eyes he knew that the hothead would use an argument that implied that because those near loose cannons were going out into fight that they should be allowed to as well.

"The Hydras have land based AC's that allow them to fight at almost the same kind of speed that BuCUEs do, your mobile suits however were built for artillery and support missions you won't be able to keep up when the fighting starts so unless I call for you you'll be staying on the Lesseps" he said before the two pilots said "Sir, yes sir!" in unison.

The two pilots walked back to their mobile suits Yzak gritting his teeth in fury with each step, and as they went Dearka whispered to his comrade in an attempt to calm him down somewhat.

"Don't worry when things go crazy, we'll get plenty of chances to wipe the Legged Ship out" this managed to calm Yzak down a little, all the two of them would have to do was wait for an opportune time.

* * *

><p>-Desert-<p>

* * *

><p>"Finally I'll be able to experience the full bliss of war!" exclaimed O'Connor as his AC the Chem-Dog was launched out of the Lesseps. The Chem-Dog lived up to its name, the armored core had a sickly green color to make it look as if the machine itself was suffering from some unknown disease.<p>

The Chem-Dog's hand held weapons were simply just an automatic shotgun and SMG, and its shoulder housed the Chem-Dog's only long range weapon, an energy launcher made for taking out capital ships and heavily armored units over long distances. However the weapon itself was seldom used as it needed a lot of power and was prone to overheating in environments such as the one that they were currently fighting in

Harold had only installed energy launcher when Lockhart had threatened to dock his pay if the guy didn't equip at least one mid to long range weapon for his armored core. When given the threat of losing the only means that he had to pay for his drugs the near insane soldier reluctantly relented to his superior's orders.

As the war machine launched out of the mobile suit carrier Harold felt the combat drugs seep into his system through his pilot suit's automated injection system. This feature allowed him to continue to get a fix even while he was in combat and prevented him from having a withdrawal while on duty.

Next on the catapult was commander Lockhart's personal armored core also known as the Ares. The Ares was a heavy weight type of AC in its left hand was a grenade launcher which was a smaller scaled version of the bazookas that mobile suit's used in order to destroy enemy ships. The right shoulder housed an energy launcher but unlike O'Connor's energy weapon his unit carried a shorter range version of the energy launcher which was only made to take out smaller targets.

The left shoulder housed a mobile suit version of a heavy machinegun, although it didn't have the firing rate or power of a gatling cannon it was much more accurate and didn't overheat as quickly. And like all of the Hydra's armored cores it carried an arm mounted energy blade for close combat.

Lockhart's second in command, Faulkner was next off of the catapult, the tall and burly man's AC was known as the Reaver which was a light weight AC built for short and quick attacks on enemy forces. The Reaver's two primary weapons were a beam rifle in its left hand and an assault rifle in its right. The only real anti air weapons that the Reaver carried were shoulder housed mid range missile launchers. Once the Reaver launched it didn't' hit the ground and instead hovered several feet above it and flew off ahead of the rest of Lockhart's forces.

On top of the Lesseps however was the Stinger. The Stinger had been classified as a long range support unit. It was equipped with one shoulder mounted long range cannon while the other was a long range missile launching system. Her main weapon was a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a zoom function that didn't have as much range as a sniper rifle but due to certain cash problems this was all she could really afford for the time being.

She yawned and stretched a little in boredom while she was strapped into the pilot seat in the cockpit. She didn't join the rest of her team in the main battle because her armored core wasn't built for frontline combat like their's were. Instead she liked stay a little farther away from the battle and hit the enemy from a long distance.

Another reason that she may have been ordered to just provide artillery support was that she had only recently joined the Hydras a little less than couple of months back and despite having fought with them on several missions she felt that the commander didn't really trust her but she just shrugged it off she'd be able to prove herself to commander Lockhart in due time. As she sat there she saw that both the Buster and Duel had taken positions nearby.

Unlike them however who wouldn't be participating in the main battle, she was very much in it, just further away from the main fighting. She put her legs onto her command console, being careful not to accidentally push any buttons or switches while sitting there the last thing that she wanted to do was touch a button or something like that that was important and end up making a complete fool of herself. All she had to do now was wait for commander Lockhart's signal to start shelling the enemy.

So far the battle had been going in favor of the Archangel and her allies. Despite this however almost half of the Desert Dawn resistance fighters were killed in the fighting so far but they continued to fight on despite the casualties that they were taking. The air was still thick with attack helicopters and similar aerial craft and were targeted by the Archangel's CIWS gun batteries, this and the fact that the Beta was swatting the lightly armored aerial vehicles out of the sky with a mixture of shots from the semi auto rifle that it carried.

In fact Flay seemed to be a holding her own rather well in this situation, although in her mind she was almost terrified of the battle waging around her but it was too late to turn back now and she would see this through to the end. Flay took aim with her rifle and fired another round, this one went straight through the helicopter's underbelly and out through the back area and by some bizarre twist of fate, Flay's shot had managed to blow part of the rotor blade off as it exited the enemy craft.

Commander La Flaga meanwhile had made a pass over the ZAFT land cruiser, christened, the Henry Carter and opened fire with the Skygrasper's new Agni cannon taking out several ZuOOTs that were stationed on top of It and most of the turrets that were used against air and mobile suit threats. As he flew passed the now partially destroyed land carrier he spotted a group of attack helicopters making their way to the Archangel and opened fire on them making them fall out the sky like dead geese on open season. After the last attack helicopter had crashed Cross heard Sky Eye's voice over the communications network

"This is Sky Eye, sensors have detected several large heat signatures coming your way one matches that of a LaGOWE the others match armored core energy signatures" he warned.

"Thanks Sky Eye, this is commander Cross to all personnel, we have incoming enemy reinforcements three of which appear to be armored c-" he started before a hauntingly familiar voice came over the communications channels "Ah, Cross old buddy you just had to ruin the surprise didn't you?" asked commander Charles Lockhart.

Cross scowled, out of the hundreds of Raven groups and solo Raven operators out there it had to be the Hydra team of all people. The Hydras used to be a much larger mercenary unit a little under a year ago but after a long and hard battle the Hydras had lost their ship, the Orbital and much of the unit had been wiped out aside from four pilots, one of whom was the leader of the group and once again it seemed that they were on opposing sides in this war.

Lockhart's AC the Ares went straight at the White Knight and activated its energy blade while the White Knight did likewise and blocked Lockhart's attack "It would appear that you still haven't lost your touch Cross" Lockhart said with a smirk, after all it would be very disappointing if after all this time training and preparing for this moment that it would be that easy to kill his old nemesis.

The two then began what some described an energy blade duel between the two. They hacked and slashed at the other in an attempt to destroy their opponent. Lockhart attempted another slash only for Cross to pull back a little and rather than make a backhand slash attack he lowered the arm that carried the energy blade and thrust it upwards cleaving a portion of the White Knight's shoulder armor off. Cross' first instinct was to try and get some distance from Lockhart but the opposing Raven would probably anticipate a move like that so he did something a little different. with a quick thrust his AC's energy blade he aimed for the Ares' knee joints in an attempt to render the enemy machine helpless.

Unfortunately this didn't' work and instead the Ares used its thrusters to jump away from the blow "I guess that I was wrong about what I said earlier, you're getting sloppy, you want me to slow down a little so that you can keep up?" Lockhart goaded. Cross ignored that annoying comment with some effort and decided to keep his enemy on the defensive rather than the other way around.

* * *

><p>While Lockhart was facing his old foe the Chem-Dog and the Reaver were completely slaughtering the Desert Dawn resistance fighters. As Faulkner fired his beam rifle at one of the jeeps and sent more of the resistance fighters to the afterlife he heard a strange sound that sounded like a mix between a groan and a sigh and then looked at where the transmission was coming from and rolled his eyes at what he heard instantly recognizing the sound.<p>

That moron was probably busy getting high right now when he should have been focusing on getting his job done and although Faulkner hated O'Connor's habits he couldn't doubt that the man could be effective on the battlefield but the day that the druggie of their now small unit became a liability to them was the day that Faulkner put him down, that was a promise.

Faulkner's armored core shook almost violently for a second before Faulkner realized that he had just been hit. He turned and saw the Lucifer coming straight for him "Damn it it's that kid again" he muttered before he opened fire with his machine gun and although they hit the seemed to just bounce off of the machine _'He must have upgraded the armor with anti kinetic shielding'_ he thought just before he cycled his rifle's autoloader and switched to armor piercing rounds which were made for taking out more armored units.

The auto loading took a few seconds so the Lucifer's pilot used that opportunity to close in the distance and activate its energy blade and slashed at the Reaver. Faulkner barely had enough time to pull back a little to try and escape the reach of the weapon. However the blade had already connected with the Reaver and although it didn't cut the machine in half like Nathan had intended it did cause some damage to the torso. Some sparks and little bit of smoke shot out of the machine's damaged chest area.

Faulkner's eyes narrowed, now he was pissed at the damage that would now have to be repaired when he got back to base but unlike Harold whose emotions were clearly visible almost all the time he kept everything held in not allowing anything to compromise his judgment. His machine gun's autoloader finally finished cycling and now he was free to open fire and he did.

Most of the armor piercing rounds hit the Lucifer in the legs in an effort to try and prevent it from maneuvering as well. The AP rounds punched through the armor of the Lucifer but unfortunately didn't cause enough damage to fully immobilize the machine like Faulkner had been hoping for. He stopped firing his assault rifle opting to not waste ammunition and switched to his beam rifle.

As he raised the weapon the Lucifer activated its energy blade once again and charged. Faulkner wasn't able to even push down on the triggering mechanism of the weapon before the energy blade sliced his beam rifle in half! The mercenary growled and dropped the now useless weapon and decided that it would be best to fall back for now. He activated the thrusters and pulled back a bit before he began to retreat.

The Lucifer's pilot continued to almost relentelessly chased afte Faulkner firing its weapon while it did. As Faulkner fell back he opened fire with his machine gun but apparently the Red Eyed Devil managed to anticipate this move and dodged to the side before the Reaver opened fire on him. Faulkner couldn't believe his eyes it was as though the enemy pilot knew what he was about to do but no matter he fired several mid range missiles at the ground nearby to put up a smokescreen.

Several mid range missiles impacted several hundred yards away but that was still quite the distance where the Red Eyed Devil was concerned. The resulting explosion had caused sand to go up into the air and that didn't include the heavy smoke from those missiles.

The Lucifer stopped right in its tacks when the missiles struck the ground and Nathan instantly readied himself for a counterattack. But it never came, by the time that the dust had finally cleared Faulkner was gone. He had most likely escaped to and headed back to his friends and since there was no way real way to follow him at the moment due to all of the ghost reading son the thermal detectors, Nathan decided to do the same he needed to get back to the fight.

He wasn't that far and as he headed back to where the combat was he saw a BuCUE jumping up into the air with its beam saber activated, most likely going in for a slash attack and it seemed that the intended target was the Strike. As the BuCUE descended to its intended target Nathan saw that all of the Lucifer's weapons were currently out of range, he wouldn't be able to hit the BuCUE even if he tried.

Thankfully the Strike dodged the attack by jumping into the air and activating its beam saber as it flew upwards and cleanly bisected the BuCUE in half as it came down towards the machine. Kira then turned the Strike to his left and saw another BuCUE approaching him, firing its rail guns as it went. Kira aimed his beam rifle directly at the BuCUE and fired before it had a chance to sidestep the weapons fire.

He then heard an explosion behind him and Kira turned his suit around and saw that the Archangel had been hit an enemy land carrier which now following them. Kira was about to race back to the ship when the sand in front of him exploded sending sand flying into the air. Once the dust and sand had finally cleared a new mobile suit was right in front of the Strike. At first glance the new machine looked like a BuCUE but upon closer examination it was painted an orange color, it also sported three horns on the head of the machine.

Kira somehow knew that it was Waltfield piloting that thing. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the man's face on the communications unit. He had the same smile that he had on his face from the other day and said "I'm afraid that you're going to have to get through me to get to your friends kid"

The young Coordinator didn't want to end up killing someone that he respected but unless he disabled the Waltfield's unit he would have no other alternative but to destroy him. He looked over at the Archangel and saw Flay opening fire at the enemy for a second and then the Black Skulls who were preoccupied with the other BuCUEs that had joined in the battle. Kira was the only one who could protect the Archangel and Flay now and he wouldn't let any of his friends die.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Once those shots hit the back of the Archangel, one of the former Zeus crewmen who was manning the sensors realized just what was attacking them "Ma'am it's the Lesseps it's right behind us!" he warned. At first the man had just thought that the Lesseps was just another ghost reading that was on the thermal detector but once the "ghost reading" opened fire on them it there was no mistaking what it really was.<p>

"It's an ambush!" said Natarle realizing their current situation. The former Zeus crewmember then looked at his console again and saw the energy signature of two of the stolen Gundams.

"We've also got the Duel and Buster on it as well plus an armored core!" he said making everyone in the room even more nervous than they were earlier. This battle had gone from bad to worse now and something told Murrue that it was only going to get harder from here on out.

* * *

><p>-Archangel hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>Cagalli had recently returned from her jeep right after her and Kisaka's RPGs had run out of ammunition. The ship had begun shaking a little while ago. According to some communications the Skulls had been cut off and couldn't return to assist the Archangel. Currently Cagalli was making a run for the only remaining Skygrasper that they had left in an attempt help the Raven's fight off the ZAFT forces and their mercenary allies.<p>

She hopped into the cockpit of the machine while chief engineer Murdoch attempted to stop her "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded but Cagalli had already closed the Skygrasper's cockpit and had begun to set the unit to hover "I'd stay back unless you want to get fried by engine wash" she warned.

Murdoch and the rest of the mechanics took cover as the Skygrasper entered VTOL mode and hovered there for a few moments before the Archangel's chief mechanic scowled in defeat there was no way he could stop that girl.

"What the hell is it with kids these days" Murdoch grumbled in anger before turning to a nearby technician "Open that god damned hatch already!" he ordered before the man did as he was told and ran over to the control unit and pushed a few commands into which caused the hanger doors to open up. Cagalli hovered over to the linear catapult and once she was close enough she was shot out of the ship like a cannonball and into the desert sky. As she went out of the hanger she didn't hear Murdoch's last comment.

"Don't blame me if you shot down you maniac!" he yelled shaking his fist angrily at the girl.

Once Cagalli exited the hanger she pulled back on the control stick and increased her altitude before she went after the Lesseps. As she approached the land based battleship she opened fire with the spinal mounted beam turret. Coincidentally as she opened fire with her weapon Mu La Flaga who was piloting the other Skygrasper was making another pass while firing with his own weaponry at the same time Cagalli was.

Their aim was true and they destroyed a couple of the Lesseps' artillery turrets preventing it from doing as much damage to the Archangel as they had with the last couple of volleys from the oversized weapons. However this still left the Stinger as a makeshift artillery piece and although it didn't pack the same amount of firepower that the Lesseps weaponry did it could still cause quite a bit of damage if it was left unchecked.

Mu La Flaga gave an impressed whistle at Cagalli's ability in a cockpit "Nice shooting girl!" he said looking back at the damage that the two of them had caused to the enemy command ship.

As Katrina sat there in the Stinger she was considering getting off of the massive land battleship since the last volley of beam fire came dangerously close to hitting her and she couldn't even fire back at the attacking aircraft because her AC was designed for ground warfare and it wasn't equipped with anti air weapons which made her wish that she had something other than a semi auto rifle and two shoulder mounted artillery units and although one of them fired long range missiles it was a complete waste of ammunition because it was designed for hitting far away ground targets not aerial vehicles.

* * *

><p>As the Skygraspers passed by the land battleship Yzak and Dearka opened fire with their beam weapons on the Skygraspers but all the shots from their weapons went wild and had missed both of the planes by a wide margin. Dearka opened fire on the Skygraspers once again but of course all of their shots went wild.<p>

"Fuck, the beams just keep veering off, they just don't work properly in the atmosphere" Dearka noted while promising that if he lived through this he would adjust the OS on his suit the first chance he got.

Yzak however just growled "That's it I can't just stand here any longer and watch while we get our asses handed to us!" the hotheaded pilot yelled before activated the Duel's thrusters and shot out into the sky intent on taking the fight to the enemy before going back down onto the earth as he wanted to save the Duel's power.

However his suit's weight combined with the new Assault shroud armor that was placed over it caused the machine to start sinking into the desert sand. He kept moving however although it looked as though the Gundam itself was being piloted by a drunken idiot rather than a professional soldeir.

This and the fact that his beam rifle and other ranged weapons were all but useless now made him a perfect target for the Desert Dawn resistance fighters who began to launch RPGs and anti air missiles mounted from the backs of their jeeps and halftracks at the Gundam.

Although heavy missile launchers mounted on the backs of some of the larger jeeps and half tracks were originally made for taking out air targets the resistance fighters quickly found that using them on some of the more heavily armored vehicles that weren't as maneuverable worked just as well too.

However the hand held and anti air weapons that the resistance fighters carried with them would not do much damage at all to the phase shift armor but after another hundred or so shots it wouldn't make much of a difference as the power supply powering the Gundam's armor would become exhausted and then it would be nothing more than a big metal coffin.

After a few seconds of not being able to do anything Yzak was about to open fire with his CIWS' when the jeeps began to pull away from him. Not wanting to waste ammunition Yzak let them go while he wondered just what the hell was going on. However his question was quickly answered as there was an incoming target on the thermal detection unit.

It was the Lucifer and it was speeding towards him with its energy blade activated.

"You're going to die here and now you piece of shit!" he heard someone yell with absolute fury over the radio presumably the pilot of the armored core as it came charging towards him.

Yzak barely had enough time to holster his beam rifle and draw his saber which he used to block the energy blade "DIE!" the enemy pilot screamed with the rage and fury that would make any berserker shake in fear. The two of them then engaged in close range combat neither one willing to give an inch to the opponent.

The Duel's thrusters activated and it flew back away from the attacking armored core. Of course Nathan was less than willing to allow the one who had killed several innocent people get away he flew after the Duel intent on killing the one piloting it.

As Yzak retreated he opened fire with the head mounted CIWS guns but they did little other than scratch some of the paint off of the armored core. As he fired he drew his beam rifle and fired the under-slung grenade launcher and as the grenade flew towards Yzak's pursuer the Lucifer activated its energy blade and managed to slice the explosive in half before it hit the machine and caused it to veer off course and harmlessly hit the sands to the side of the AC much to Yzak's shock. This pilot really had it in for him and he didn't even know why.

Yzak looked at the energy monitor for the phase shift armor, he was practically out and when that happened he would be completely at the mercy of the enemy pilot and judging from what had happened so far that man would show him none.

Nathan continued to advance on the Duel without hesitation or pause.

"It's going to take more than that to stop me you bastard!" he yelled as Yzak used the shoulder mounted rocket pods and opened fire sending several rocket pods into the enemy. The Lucifer raised its left arm over the cockpit just as the rockets impacted the armor.

Thankfully the rocket's that detonated on impact were ones that weren't made for piercing through armor and all it did was cause some electrical damage to some of the subsystems. The damage wasn't heavy however and the arms could still move enough that they could use their weapons it would just be slightly slower than they were earlier. As the electricity that was running loose through part of the Lucifer were shut down since the subsystems recognized the damage and shut down those specific parts of the AC and activated the backup units.

As for the electrical currents that had already coursed through the AC just seconds earlier Nathan was completely unharmed since the cockpit was coated in an insolated material in case such a thing occurred so Nathan was perfectly safe from the handful of high electrical currents that coursed throughout the Armored Core.

Once the dust had finally cleared the Duel was long gone and the thermal detection unit was picking up a large number of ghost readings. This made Nathan slam his fist onto the side of the cockpit in frustration he needed to make the pilot of the Duel pay for his crimes. Eventually though he managed to calm himself down and listen to his mind's reasoning.

They had pursued them from Heliopolis all the way to Earth so they were most likely far too invested in the Archangel's destruction to call it quits. Nathan would meet the other pilot on the field of battle again and next time he swore that he would kill him.

But for now he had to head back to the Archangel they probably needed all the help that they could get.

* * *

><p>Cross opened fire with his AC's beam rifle again and sent yet another ZAFT pilot into the afterlife while Li opened fire with her shoulder mounted energy launcher which managed to blow off the head of a BuCUE while several of the Fury's beam repeater rounds went through another's torso sending it into the sands.<p>

Although at first the enemy BuCUEs were giving them hell with their advantage in mobility but after a few minutes of fruitless fighting they managed to turn the tide by estimating where the BuCUEs would make their maneuvers. This actually worked like a charm and they finally managed to make the enemy pilots have to actually work for their kills. Now there were only about three or four BuCUEs left.

"Eat this bitches!" yelled Drake while he hovered over the sand while opening fire with his gatling cannons at another BuCUE which was gunned down in an instant but he couldn't finish off the other one because his cannons overheated again much to his dismay.

"Fuck!" he yelled in frustration while the BuCUE ignited its double bladed beam saber and came charging at him, "Crap, crap, crap" he muttered as he raised his beam bazooka and fired almost completely vaporizing the enemy BuCUE. He gave out a sigh of relief at this and wondered how the kid was doing.

"Drake come on we're breaking through the enemy encirclement, let's head back and provide the Archangel with some support!" ordered Cross causing Drake to snap out of it and he nodded "Got it boss" while wishing that he could go after the Hydras who had just run off when it looked like they were going to lose.

* * *

><p>Although some soldiers might consider this an act of cowardice and Lockhart would normally tend to agree with that but this was a rather different situation than what they were used to. Normally they would have gun support from the Orbital giving them covering fire while they steamrolled their way through the enemy forces with at least another four AC's but after the destruction of most of their unit they had little choice but to retreat when necessary and this was one of those times much to his shame.<p>

Surprisingly enough however it was easy to convince Harold that it would be a good idea to leave. The maniac had already had his some of his fix of war and although the man wanted more of it he was running low on his precious drug even with the suit's injection system and would have to get more combat stimulants later. Lockhart used Harold's addiction to his advantage during this fight and made him follow the order that he normally wouldn't give.

Now they had to head back to a safer location for a spell and wait for things to die down a bit more. Faulkner had already radioed in and said that he would meet them at the rally point and told Lockhart that his AC had taken quite a bit of damage at the hands of the Red Eyed Devil.

After Dearka watched Yzak run off like that he and the Raven operator that he'd been providing artillery support with from earlier were more than content to just stay on board the Lesseps and provide some firing support for their allies from a safe distance. The BuCUEs that were keeping the Raven's busy were all but gone now and he noticed that the two Skygrasper's from earlier were coming back and preparing to make yet another attack run and he was very skeptical that they were going after the anti armor turrets that were made for taking down tanks.

"Katrina get off of this thing now!" Dearka yelled and apparently the Raven had been thinking on the same wavelength that Dearka was and had already activated her thrusters before the ZAFT pilot had even finished warning her and jumped off of the Lesseps while Dearka did likewise half a second later narrowly avoiding a beam cannon discharge that would have killed them both.

The two of them landed in the sand and unbeknownst the them Flay was watching both of them from her spot on top of the Archangel. She wasn't about to risk them getting into a position where they could attack the ship.

Along with a large amount of combat simulator training Nathan had told her memorize the abilities and weaknesses of the stolen prototypes so Flay knew that the Buster was very vulnerable in close combat and that AC that was with it didn't look like it was made for close combat either.

The Beta then leapt off of its perch atop the Archangel and engaged its thrusters and went straight for the two enemy machines all the while she thought that she must have gone completely insane to volunteer to become a pilot. As she leaped off of the ship she heard somebody yelling at her to stop but she didn't listen she engaged her thrusters and made sure that she didn't end up landing in the sand in order to avoid the Beta sinking into it.

As the red haired girl flew over to the two machines Katrina saw the girl coming and since she was still mired in the sand she couldn't get off a decent shot with any of her weapons. She pushed a series of buttons on her command console and the two weapons that were attached to the Stinger's shoulders unclasped themselves from their resting places on the shoulder's and fell into the sand with a loud boomf noise as it sent large piles of sand up everywhere.

She engaged her thrusters and fell back a little while Dearka did the same. The Beta opened fire with it's semi auto rifle and hit the Buster dead on and of course none of the shots fired didn't do any damage thanks to the Buster's PS armor.

"A new one?" Dearka mused to himself, he was positive that he hadn't seen this one while they were in space but he theorized that the AC probably wasn't adjusted for space combat. It made no difference as the enemy AC charged towards him with its thrusters activated making it quickly close the distance he combined the gun launcher and the high output energy rifle into an high powered shotgun and opened fire at the Beta.

Flay panicked and her first thought was to back away a little bit but remembered her training and flew upwards to avoid the blast and surprisingly it worked the energy weapon version of a shotgun missed her completely causing her to let out a sigh of relief that she wasn't dead yet and took this opportunity to open fire with the Beta's rocket pods sending dozens of small rockets hurling towards both of the enemy machines.

They impacted almost immediately and since Katrina's unit was made out of a thick armor it didn't do much damage other than temporarily blind the enemy pilot due to the explosions caused by the rockets. The same could be said for the Dearka's Gundam, whose PS armor protected it from the projectiles but the number of explosions caused a large drain in the phase shift armor which would soon be completely drained of any remaining energy and make him a sitting duck.

Dearka was about return fire on that annoying armored core when he heard commander Waltfield's second in command, Martin DaCosta over the communications unit.

"All units fall back I repeat all units fall back to rally point one we're cutting our losses and pulling out, this is a direct order from Commander Waltfield himself I repeat all units are fall back at once!" he announced.

Under normal circumstances Dearka would have a major problem with that kind of order but decided that he probably wouldn't be able to last much longer under these fighting conditions. This enemy pilot was beginning to give him hell but this person was clearly a rookie seeing as how the machine flew around somewhat clumsily as if the pilot was unsure of his or her own abilities in combat.

Under any other circumstance he and the Raven operator would continue to engage this newbie but they could barely maneuver in this terrain and therefore the enemy pilot had a total advantage over them in this situation and he would rather not get killed by some wet behind the ear rookie.

He and Katrina activated their thrusters and fell back to the now retreating and noticed that the enemy AC was not pursuing them for which Dearka knew that the Lesseps probably intimidated the enemy pilot enough to not want to deal with the massive war machine.

* * *

><p>-A few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Waltfield's LaGOWE was on its last legs quite literally. The left front leg had been sliced off when they had charged at Kira intending on slicing the Strike in half with a beam saber. This however proved disastrous because Kira managed to duck under the attack and slice off the leg of the enemy machine.<p>

And although they destroyed the beam rifle with a shot from the rail cannon that was mounted on the LaGOWE. However that weapon too was destroyed after Kira managed to slice it off the LaGOWE's torso when he countered the enemy's attack. This only left Waltfield with just a beam saber.

Despite this the Strike was almost completely out of power and wouldn't last more than a couple of seconds after its phase shift armor was knocked offline.

Commander Waltfield pushed a button on his communications unit "DaCosta order all of our remaining forces to retreat, we're cutting our losses and pulling out" he ordered to his second in command who looked surprised. Sure they were taking heavy losses but they still had a chance to win this battle but he wouldn't argue with a superior officer "Yes sir!" he said before telling the helmsmen to fall back.

As the helmsmen did as he was ordered DaCosta quickly noticed that the LaGOWE that Waltfield and his lover were piloting wasn't even moving from its current position.

"Sir what are you doing? Get the hell out of there" DaCosta exclaimed "Negative" the commander said simply before cutting off all communications with the Lesseps.

Waltfield then turned to his lover and said "Aisha you get out of here" he ordered but she scoffed and replied in a casual tone as though she was just discussing something like the weather "I'm not leaving you here alone here Andy" she said

This made the Desert Tiger sigh "I guess we're both idiots then" he muttered to himself. "Andy stop this! Just get out of here I don't want to kill you" said Kira but Waltfield just scoffed at the kid's naïveté "Kid I'm not giving up until one of us is dead!" he yelled.

After the Desert Tiger finished his declaration the color of the Strike's armor changed into a dull grey signaling that the phase shift armor was now completely out of power and a few moments after the power went out Kira's beam saber deactivated since it was deprived of an energy source. Andy took this opportunity now that the Strike was practically defenseless save for its combat knives.

As the LaGOWE closed the distance between the two of them a seed spun and exploded in front of Kira. The Strike then drew one of its combat knives and activated it. Despite the fact that the phase shift was down the Strike rapidly ran up to the LaGOWE and shoved the combat knife into the ZAFT mobile suit's back which caused sparks to fly out of the wound like blood would jet out of an artery when stuck by a blade and into the air before an explosion near where the knife had entered sent the Strike flying back into the sands.

A few seconds after the Strike had stuck its knife Waltfield looked at his display and saw that the LaGOWE's core had been breached by the weapon and now they had only a few seconds before the machine exploded. Aisha got out of her seat while Andy did likewise and the two embraced each other before all they saw was white.

Kira watched as the LaGOWE exploded and felt tears begin to stream down his face once again. "Damn it!" he shouted "It didn't have to end like this!" he wailed.

to be continued

* * *

><p>AN: for those of you who are wondering why the Hydras as well as the Skulls beam weapons can work in the atmosphere better than the stolen gundams then the answer is quite simple, their beam weapons were modified for use in both space and ground warfare.


	17. Journey Through the Red Sea

Armored Seed

chapter 17

Journey through the Red Sea

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Armored Core, I do however own the Black Skulls

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><p>-Desert Dawn base of operations-<p>

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><p>For the Desert Dawn rebels as well as most of the crew of the Archangel it was a time of celebration. Crewmembers of the Atlantic Federation warship and their Raven allies partied alongside the rebels happy that their common enemy had finally been eliminated, for now at least anyways.<p>

As the party continued one of the militiamen a big man who apparently had the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was in his prime, bumped into Drake as was getting a beer from the makeshift bar that had been set up a while back. When the large man didn't apologize for bumping into him the man was then almost foolishly called: Mr. Steroids by Drake. The really tough looking guy then became angry at the insinuation that his strength was the result of drugs and not hard work.

Strangely enough rather than beat the living daylights out of the Raven pilot, the man instead challenged Drake to a drinking contest which to be honest wasn't what anyone had expected from the large and bulky man.

Not one to pass up an opportunity like a drinking contest Drake almost immediately agreed with his opponent. The two sat across from each other. Each having been poured a shot of the most potent alcoholic beverage that the Desert Dawn rebels had in their possession.

Several soldiers who belonged to the Zeus, the Archangel and the Desert Dawn rebels gathered around the two of them and began to quietly make wagers on who would last longer and most of the militia put their money on the bigger guy. However the crewmembers of the Zeus and Archangel placed their bets more towards Drake since the blond haired man had more than often proved to outlast everyone when it came to drinking booze.

It was a very close match. Both of the two combatants had managed to make it to their tenth shot of alcohol before one of them had shown any sign of weakness. It was only after their eleventh drink that the strong looking guy had begun to show some signs of being drunk and yet Drake had absolutely none he simply and contentedly drank away at the alcoholic beverage while the other man was barely even able to lift his own glass to his mouth.

It was another two shots before the strong guy finally succumbed to the alcohol in his system and passed out, falling backwards off of his seat and onto the dirt floor. Five nearby members of the militia began to drag their friend back to his quarters so that he could sleep it off while the others pulled out some cash and handed it to the ones that they had made a bet with. Drake however gave a somewhat disappointed yawn he had hoped that this guy might provide him with something of a challenge.

After all no one on the Zeus or the Archangel had managed to beat him at this drinking game, even Adam never managed to outlast him, this caused a lot of people to wonder just what kind of abuse Drake's liver had been taking.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Mu and captain Ramius were with Sahib talking about what it was they were going to do now "I hope you realize that this isn't going to mean much Sahib, ZAFT's just going to send in more troops and if they don't then I can guarantee Atlantic Federation or Eurasia will" explained Mu.<p>

The leader of the Desert Dawn took a quick sip of his drink and said "Yes but today we managed a great victory over our enemy and for that I believethat we've earned our celebration for now but when they do inevitably return we shall fight until our dying breaths" he said rather passionately.

Mu sincerely hoped that it wouldn't' come to that but knowing how important the natural resources that the area held were far too important to both ZAFT and the Earth Forces for them to just let it go. They were fighting a losing battle to say the least but their determination and will to fight on despite the odds was almost awe inspiring.

"To a new Desert Dawn" said Sahib raising his mug, Murrue then raised hers "To a great victory" that comment made Mu smile. It was a hard won battle but they had won the battle nonetheless "I'll drink to that" he said before the sound of three mugs clanging together filled the small command room.

Once the toast was finished the sound of running footsteps came into the command center. Sahib's son ran into the command center and ran directly up to his parent. "Father the elder has begun commemorating our fallen warriors" he said before Sahib nodded and the trio proceeded out.

When they walked out of the Desert Dawn's command center they noticed that everyone was respectfully silent even Mabuto and Michaels while the elderly priest of the village stood in front of several graves. Each one contained a dead resistance fighter or whatever it was they could find of them given the kind of damage that mobile suits could inflict. The elder began to say the names of those who had died in battle recently and as he heard Nathan along with several others including lieutenant Natarle gave respectful salutes to those brave souls who had given their lives in their most recent battle in this conflict.

The listing of names went on for anther thirty seconds before the priest was finally finished reciting the names of those who had died during their last battle. Nathan finally ceased his respectful salute as did the others who had saluted as well. He looked over at some of the others who all had mixed reactions some had been bowing their heads in solemn, while others who were presumably family members of those who were deceased all but openly wept at their lost husbands, brothers and/or fathers.

Kira and Flay meanwhile had been watching the whole ceremony from a more private area enjoying the peace and quiet. Just a couple of hours ago Flay had been chewed out by commander Cross because of her reckless actions he had half a mind to revoke her piloting privileges.

However the commander was willing to show her some leniency as she didn't have much of a choice when she went all lone warrior on the enemy. The rest of the Skulls and Kira were both in the middle of combat and wouldn't be able to make it back to the Archangel in time if those two hostiles had opened fire on the Archangel

When Kira had gotten back to the Archangel he was completely depressed having been forced to kill someone, who under if they had met under different circumstances could have become a very good friend. As he thought of Waltfield he remembered what had happened when he had calmed down and gotten back onboard the Archangel.

* * *

><p><em>Upon entering the hanger he was told by Mu La Flaga who had already gotten back in just a few moments earlier that Flay was having a difficult time getting out of the cockpit and due to their relationship they must have thought Kira might be able to help coax the poor girl get out of the Beta's cockpit. When he got there he saw that Murdoch was already attempting to get Flay to calm down. Once he saw the girl though his heart skipped a beat. Flay was in the pilot's seat her hands were tightly gripping the control units, her eyes were wide, her face appeared to be sweating behind her helmet and she looked like she was on verge of hyperventilating. <em>

"_Flay?" he asked finally managing to find his voice as he looked over at the panicked girl. Upon hearing his voice Flay looked up and directly at him before she began to calm down a little. Kira then moved into the cockpit and undid the safety belts that kept Flay in the pilot's seat. Once she was free of that she almost immediately embraced Kira in a tight yet gentle hug. Mu and Murdoch then left the two lovebirds to themselves for a while until they were needed again. _

_Flay was all too eager to leave the cockpit of the Beta and the hanger bay. During the early portions of the battle she wasn't all that worried, in fact she was more nervous when she was waiting for it to start. Although once she had shot down one of the enemy attack helicopters and the other ZAFT forces fired upon her Flay actually became afraid because unlike in the simulator where you could just start over again on a mission until you succeeded you could actually die in a situation like the battle._

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><p>They stayed together for quite a while the other's presence giving eachother some comfort. They still stayed side by side even when the celebrations had started. Tolle had remarked that the two were practically inseparable now and the others in the group were inclined to agree with him.<p>

The couple rested their heads on each other and were about to head back to the crew quarters for some much needed rest when they heard Mir's voice from behind them.

"There you guys are!" she exclaimed. The couple turned around and saw their friends from Heliopolis. They were still in their earth forces uniforms but that wasn't much of a surprise considering that most of their civilian clothing was almost unusable since they had escaped from Heliopolis.

"So where have you two been? We've been looking for you ever since the battle was over" said Kuzzey. Kira and Flay glanced at each other before they looked at their friends a little sheepishly. "We just wanted some time to ourselves" said Kira. Tolle raised his eyebrow thinking of some of the implications of what they said. A sly grin then came over his face.

"Well now, I didn't think that the two of you were at that stage of your relationship yet but if that's the case how was Flay in the sack?" he joked causing Flay and Kira to both blush bright red at the implications of that remark while everyone just looked at Tolle with looks ranging from humored to downright annoyed.

"W-w-we haven't really gone that far yet" said Kira as his face turned scarlet. Although Mirfound this kind of reaction rather adorable this made the brown haired girl give her boyfriend a glare because of his inappropriate insinuations. Tolle saw the look on her face and chuckled nervously "Ah don't worry, I'm just kidding with you two" he said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while trying to avoid his girlfriend's possible wrath.

The group continued to talk amongst themselves for almost an hour before Kira felt his eyelids begin to grow heavy. He let out a tired yawn and began to sway back and forth from a little bit from where he was standing before he started to fall forward. He would have completely fallen to the ground if Flay hadn't caught him when she did "Kira" she said softly while stroking the side of his face a little.

She looked up at her friends and saw that they were looking at her with odd expressions "Could you please help me carry him to bed?" she asked. They all nodded and began to help carry their friend back to his quarters back on the Archangel.

After Kira was carried to his quarters his friends left him alone with his girlfriend and she yawned as well becoming very tired thanks to today's earlier excitement. She got into the same bunk as Kira and snuggled up close to him and she was soon fast asleep as well with a smile on her face.

* * *

><p>-The Red Sea two days later-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan sat down on the observation deck of the Archangel and felt the hot wind hit his face as he looked out at the ever shifting sea before him. He hadn't been on earth for several months so such sights were rather rare for him. And it seemed as though the students from Heliopolis hadn't been on earth for even longer since they were so mesmerized by the peaceful scenery around them. Nathan always felt more at peace when he was nearby the sea and oceans even though he wasn't entirely sure why.<p>

The day after the celebration/memorial service the Archangel was getting packed up and ready to leave when Cagalli and Kisaka asked to join them. At first the captain was reluctant to allow them but she eventually relented despite Natarle naturally protesting to the issue. Drake had even jokingly suggested that they simply throw the annoying woman overboard and be done with it. And although he was joking some of the other Black Skulls appeared to be seriously considering taking the man seriously.

He also noticed that several other members of the Archangel were now on the deck of the ship watching the sea and enjoying some fresh air. They too were also dazzled by the large body of water that was around the ship. "I know that it's beautiful and all but I'm starting to feel a little sick" Kuzzey whined as he looked out at the ocean and felt the increasing urge to vomit.

Tolle who was standing nearby gave him a realizing glance "Oh that's right this is your first time on earth isn't it? I mean you were born on Heliopolis right?" he asked wanting to make sure.

Kuzzey nodded still feeling slightly sick "Yeah this is my first time, and I thought the desert was bad but now this?" he moaned and was about to complain a little further when they both heard a familiar voice behind them.

"Oh, you'll get used to it you big baby and soon you'll be wondering what it was you were whining over" said Li who was wearing a bikini along with aviator styled sunglasses. Instead of her long black hair being put into its normal bun it had now been let down and it cascaded slightly past her shoulders. The two boys tried not to stare at some of her more, attractive areas that were on the female's body, especially Tolle who knew that his girlfriend was watching him and didn't want to risk her wrath.

Mir gave Li a strange look wondering what the hell that woman was doing out here in that kind of an outfit but then she saw the folding chair she held in one of her arms as well as the skin lotion that was in the other. Mir then quickly surmised that Li had come to the deck to try and get a tan. Ever since they had met that strange woman she had proven time and time again that she was probably the complete opposite of what everyone from Heliopolis had expected a female soldier to be.

The stereotype of a woman in any sort of military was a muscular, no nonsense person that would just as kill you as she would look at you but instead Li was a petite, easygoing and energetic person who, according to several Black Skull members liked to play matchmaker among other things in her spare time.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT Command Submarine-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Morassim was somewhat pleased with this recent development that he had just heard about. The Legged Ship and her Raven escorts had fallen to earth which was rather unfortuante at first glance. However, instead of landing in or near the Earth Forces territory like they had intended to do, they instead had landed in north Africa. More specifically in north eastern Egypt and according to commander Rau Le Creuset had managed to neutralize commander Andrew Waltfield, aka the Desert Tiger after just a few days after they arrived on earth.<p>

Now that ship was more than likely heading straight across the Red Sea. Morassim was not one to passing up an opportunity to destroy the Legged Ship and become a hero to ZAFT, he had placed his forces on standby alert and had begun to scour the area for the past two and a half days and although they had found nothing so far they continued to search the area where the Archangel would more than likely head.

It was only a matter of time before they were found and when they were Morassim promised himself that they would be completely annihilated. The commander was about to head back to the bridge of his command ship when he heard a voice on the intercom "Commander Morassim we've got a long range contact it may be the Legged Ship"

Morassim inwardly smirked to himself. It would appear that fortune had smiled upon them this day. The ZAFT commander pushed the talk button on the intercom.

"I'm on my way there. Now order all mobile suit pilots to get ready for combat immediately" he ordered while the person on the other end of the line gave an "Affirmative sir" and the line went silent. Commander Morassim then hurried up to the bridge eager to start the battle and make his mark in ZAFT's history as the one who managed to destroy the Legged Ship in one stroke even when the famed commander Le Creuset had failed to do so.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Aft Observation Deck-<p>

* * *

><p>On one of the other observation decks Kira sat down alone thinking back to when he had killed Andrew Waltfield, a person that under any other circumstances he might have called a good friend. Although Flay had helped comfort him during his time of need he still felt guilty over killing him. He just sat there for a while engrossed in his thoughts wondering if he could have changed that outcome. He heard the door leading to the inside of the Archangel hiss open. Kira turned around and saw Cagalli walking through the airlock and onto the deck.<p>

Cagalli walked right up to him "No one's seen you for hours Kira" she said a little worriedly. He sighed "I just wanted to be alone for a while" he said before sitting down and leaning against the metal guardrail that kept him from falling off the deck.

"What's wrong?" she asked somewhat bluntly and Kira just sighed "I just keep on thinking about what had happened since I left Heliopolis" he elaborated as his mind once again replayed memories of friends that he had failed to protect or had been forced to kill. Heliopolis, Flay's father, all of those civilians on that transport shuttle and now he had been forced to kill Andrew Waltfield, a man that he respected and had almost considered a friend.

As he thought back his face took on a saddened expression and Cagalli noticed this and decided to change the subject to something a little different. "Just out of curiosity" Cagalli said causing Kira to look at her again "Why is it that a Coordinator is fighting alongside the Atlantic Federation?" she asked raising a brow. Ever since she had met him Kira had proven that he was a little more than different from the average soldier, he hated fighting and yet was willing to go into combat to protect others.

Kira looked down at the metal deck "I've been asked that so many times lately" he said remembering how Athrun had acted when he found out that he was working with the Earth Forces. The young Coordinator quickly broke himself out of his thoughts not wanting to think about him fighting his old friend despite the fact that he probably would have to do so again in the near future.

"I never wanted to take part in any war, the only thing that I want is to protect my friends that's all" he explained. It was a simple reason but at least it was a noble one as far as Cagalli was concerned.

"Strange" she said to herself as she looked up at the sky for a moment. This made Kira take on a puzzled expression not really understanding what she found so strange "Most of the people I've met feel very strongly about the war that's going on. From what I've heard they usually just want the other side to be completely wiped out" she said with a shrug "How do you feel about this war?" asked Kira curiously.

Cagalli turned her head and looked out at the seemingly endless expanse of the red sea and spoke "I think that this whole war is just plain stupid, I mean I don't understand how adjusting your genes is a crime against nature and don't get me wrong but I think that ZAFT is also in the wrong here too. Some of those guys have almost been calling for the extermination of all Naturals but who could blame them after what had happened at Junius Seven" she said referring to the massacre that had caused one of Kira's friends so much grief.

After that happened some of the more radical members of ZAFT were almost on the verge of calling for genocide against any non Coordinator that lived either on Earth or in the PLANTs. And she knew for a fact that most likely the majority of the higher ups in the Earth Forces wanted the same thing for anyone who was born a Coordinator or sympathized with them.

So far it appeared as though that the war was never going to end through any sort of peaceful means and even Kira didn't seem to be naïve enough to think that.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>An Archangel crewmember was manning the thermal detection unit but with all of the N-Jammers burrowed underneath the surface it was difficult to even make and since they were out at sea, to counter this problem for whiel tehy were out on the ocean they recently installed a retrofitted sonar system and were currently scanning for any submersible, surface ship or similar ships and it turned out to be quite an improvement over their thermal detection units which were practically useless in the desert since it almost always picked up some sort of a ghost reading so it was difficult to tell what was really there and what wasn't.<p>

The crewmen spotted a few objects on the sonar and the thermal detection unit. He checked it and they didn't seem like ghost readings since they disappear and reappear quickly and they didn't seem to be doing that "Uh, captain I have two unidentified contacts on the thermal detection unit"

Captain Hackett was about to respond to his subordinate when he remembered that this was Murrue's ship and as such she was in charge of the crew onboard not him. It was just that it was almost out of habit that he respond to the soldier's report. However he resisted the urge to respond.

"Is it another civilian aircraft like the last three times?" Murrue asked but the crewmen just shook his head "I don't think so their coming too fast for it to be a civilian aircraft and besides they're headed on an intercept course for us" he said seconds before he checked the sonar unit as well. Sure enough there were also several contacts underwater heading straight at them. The officer then turned back to the captain "The sonar has just started to pick up what looks like several ZAFT submarines" said the officer.

The captain of the Archangel reacted almost instantly to the report "Sound an alert, get all crewmembers to their stations immediately, get off of the surface I don't want this ship to get sunk by some torpedoes. And you ID those radar blips!" she ordered and the other crew in the CIC complied with her orders the second she was finished giving out orders.

It took a few seconds but the crewman manning the sensors station finally managed to ID them "They seem to be ZAFT's atmospheric flight mobile suit types. They're DINN's!" he exclaimed eyes widening slightly before he looked up from the ship's database at the captain.

Natarle then spoke into her headset that linked to an intercom that ran throughout the ship "All hands report to battle stations, this is not a drill I repeat all hands report to battle stations this is not a drill!" she

Seconds after the alarms went off and even those that were still lounging around on the observation decks heard the alarms and went rushing back into the ship to report to their assigned positions on the ship. Kira's friends from Heliopolis immediately made a mad dash for the bridge of the Archangel.

Kira himself meanwhile headed for the hanger along with Flay and Cagalli who wanted to get this battle over with as soon as possible. Recently Cagalli had been training in the Skygrasper's built in simulator and had also allowed by captain Murrue Ramius to pilot the additional unit that they had been keeping in storage into combat if it was deemed necessary for their survival and currently it seemed that this qualified as that kind of situation.

The trio entered the hanger and saw that the other Black Skulls had already begun to get their armored cores ready for the fight. Right now they were finishing up mounting the depth charge and torpedo launching units onto their armored cores legs. Normally the Black Skulls didn't carry that kind of armament since most of their engagements were either on land or in space but they always carried torpedo launchers and depth charge attachments in case they were forced to fight over, on or near a large body of water.

The only member of the Black Skulls who wasn't going to be going out on the sortie was Drake Mabuto since his AC's thruster's simply weren't powerful enough to withstand the weight of the Panzer long enough to keep it from sinking into the watery depths of the Red Sea. With the other AC's it was a different matter since the weight of their machines weren't nearly as heavy as the Panzer so it was a lot easier for them to try and maneuver on and around the surface of the water.

While the Panzer's pilot had bitched and moaned for a little while about not being able to go into battle he quickly ceased when commander Cross pointed the flaws out to the man and then told him that it wasn't a discussion it was an order. Drake then begrudgingly agreed to stay on board the Archangel but he had made it quite clear that he didn't like it.

Flay had already gotten her pilot suit on and was seconds away from going to get into the Beta when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Flay turned around saw Cross giving her a firm look "Sorry Flay but you haven't been trained for water combat yet so I'm afraid that you'll have to stay here on this one" he said in a tone that suggested that she should do as she was ordered.

Although she wanted to go out and fight with everyone else Flay had agreed that if she was to become a pilot she had to obey Cross' and Nathan's orders, period. The red haired girl then nodded reluctantly and went over to see if there was anything else she could do to help.

Kira had already gotten into the Strike and watched as the others proceeded to the linear catapult and were each catapulted out of the ship. After Nathan had finished launching Kira moved the Strike towards the launch unit. Once it was on the catapult the loading mechanism rather than attach the Aile strike package like it normally did it instead attached a bazooka along with the standard issue shield since beam weapons were almost totally useless in a water environment.

* * *

><p>-The Red Sea a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Morassim grinned behind his helmet's visor. They had complete and total advantage here, not only did they have a substantial number of air superiority mobile suits otherwise known as DINNs but the submarine that was also a part of his unit also carried a number of GOOhNs which were aquatic mobile suits designed specifically for combat in a water based environment. It took quite a bit of foresight on part of the engineers who had designed that particular type of mobile suit.<p>

It was as though ZAFT had known that they would probably have to take some of their battles under the waves if they went to war with the Earth Forces, especially if they wanted to bring the fight to their own territory rather than just stay up in space and risk damage to the PLANTs.

The Legged Ship however only had a few ground and space capable mobile suits and armored cores which weren't built for combat in and around large bodies of water. The only thing that they had to really concern themselves with was the Strike that was onboard the Archangel but even then it didn't exactly have water combat capabilities and most of its weapons were energy based so it would probably be near completely useless if it was dragged underneath the water.

"This is commander Morassim, deploy the GOOhN team immediately" he ordered while several launch tubes inside his command sub as well as the escorts opened and out launched a number of GOOhN's out towards the Archangel. He saw the blips that represented the GOOhN's slowly make their way towards the Archangel. Soon victory would be his and he would be remembered in history books for generations to come as the man who managed to sink the Legged Ship while so many other commanders of _higher caliber_ had failed.

As the flight of around six DINNs flew onwards the ZAFT commander quickly noticed that the Archangel's stern missile launchers open fire with high explosive rounds meant for taking out MS and large heavily armored targets. He and the three other DINNs that had accompanied him broke formation and began evasive maneuvers.

None of the missiles that had been fired managed hit their intended targets but fortunately one of the DINN's was hit several times by the Igelstellung CIWS turrets when he went into their line of sight and although it didn't down the DINN in an instant like the crew of the Archangel had probably hoped, it did however damage its right wing just enough that it was sent spiraling out of control as it was hit over and over again by the CIWS turrets and one stray shot from one of the turrets punched straight through the cockpit's armor and into the machine's primary reactor causing the power source to explode which made the DINN go down in flames.

Morassim scowled, this wasn't going exactly as he had planned, the bearded commander had already lost one of his DINNs and the enemy mobile suits and armored cores hadn't even gotten out of the ship yet. However he didn't have to wait very long for that to happen wouldn't last long as the Black Skull AC's began to launch right on out of the Archangel's hanger along with the two Skygraspers. Once the Strike had finally launched it the GOOhN team recognized it almost immediately due to the commander having them memorize what the machine looked like until it had been burned into their minds.

The GOOhN team which was comprised of three mobile suits had been under the strictest of orders not to open fire until the Strike was out of the Legged Ship and in their line of fire where they would use their shoulder mounted beam weapons to draw it into their trap.

A few seconds after the last of the Legged Ship's armored core and Skygrasper compliment had finished leaving the hanger the Strike had finally made its appearance as it soared out of the Archangel. One of the GOOhN's that had been watching the launcher just above the surface of the water targeted the Strike with its beam launchers and opened fire.

The shots missed by a wide margin but that was the original intention for the GOOhN team. They were to lure the Strike into the water and overwhelm it with their superior mobility and either destroy or capture it, commander Morassim wasn't very particular on which but given the trouble the Strike and the other ships had caused they resolved to simply destroy the enemy mobile suit which would probably be far easier for them than if they were to try and capture it.

Kira looked down and spotted them instantly and opened fire with the bazooka and sent an explosive round into the water that blew up after a second before the Strike dived into the water after the GOOhN team.

* * *

><p>-Underwater-<p>

* * *

><p>At first Kira was expecting underwater combat to be similar to that of space combat. Unfortunately he was one hundred percent wrong, once under the waves he began to sink quickly and the Strike's movements were much more sluggish than if he was in space, not only that but he couldn't use any of his beam weapons under the water.<p>

Fortunately he at least had more than enough foresight to take out a bazooka rather than the beam rifle that he normally used. The GOOhN's immediately surrounded him and Kira aimed his bazooka right at one of the approaching mobile suits and opened fire. The bazooka's round exited the weapon and made its way towards the GOOhN that was closing in on his position.

Since the weapon was being fired underwater it's movements were far slower than when it was used above the water's surface. This made it incredibly easy for the GOOhNs to completely evade since they were in the perfect environment to maneuver which gave them the complete advantage over the Strike.

Kira activated the Strike's thrusters to avoid having to go to far under the water where the pressure would completely crush the Strike. After he did that he fired another shot from his bazooka at one of the GOOhNs that were coming straight for him. Since the GOOhN was much closer than the last group that he had fired at the bazooka round had no problem hitting the GOOhN and it blew a giant hole that went clean through the armor of the aquatic mobile suit before it exploded.

The resulting shockwave sent the Strike spiraling backwards and Kira thanked heaven that the Strike had phase shift armor or else the pieces that were once part of the GOOhN he had just destroyed would have shredded the Strike to pieces but thanks to the PS armor system. One of the two remaining GOOhN's attempted to avenge their fallen compatriot by charging headlong at the Strike.

Since the bazooka was now completely out of ammunition Kira tossed the now useless weapon aside and drew one of the Strike's armor Schneider knives and side stepped the attack but not before he grabbed onto the GOOhN's dorsal fin and activated the knife before shoving it right into the GOOhN's back and the weapon dug in for a few seconds before Kira pulled it out and let go of the mobile suit.

The sudden change in pressure on the inside machinery of the GOOhN caused it to be quickly crushed in a similar way that a soda can in a trash compactor would before it exploded. The last remaining GOOhN opened fire with its torpedo launcher repeatedly trying to keep its distance away from the Strike which had proven to still be more than lethal despite the fact that it was in a completely different environment that it was normally used to.

Unfortunately for the strike the remaining GOOhN's tactic seemed to be working as the machine kept Kira at a distance when the explosions from the torpedoes kept the Strike suppressed. One of the torpedoes from the GOOhN managed to hit the Strike's arm and caused it to drop its combat knife which was Kira's last remaining defensive option.

As the battle continued above the water yet another one of the DINNs that had been launched to help commander Morassim was instead blasted to pieces by a shot from one of the Skygraspers' Agni cannon. By a bizarre stroke of luck for the pilot of the Strike the remains from the mobile suit fell into the water directly above where Kira had been fighting. The second that the remaining pieces of the DINN hit the water they quickly started to float downwards under the water.

Kira immediately noticed the falling pieces but mostly ignored them until he saw a machine gun still clutched in a DINN's severed hand. That weapon was probably the best chance that he had of taking out the last GOOhN. Before the GOOhN realized what it was Kira was doing he quickly grabbed the machine gun and without hesitation opened fire on the GOOhN. The pilot wasn't able to react quickly enough and was cut down in a hail of automatic machinegun fire. The remains of the now destroyed GOOhN slowly started to quickly float down to the sea floor.

As the destroyed piece of slag that was once a mobile suit continued to float downwards into the dark abyss Kira wasted no time since the Strike was once again almost out of energy Kira used the Strike's thrusters and rocketed back up to the surface.

* * *

><p>-The Surface-<p>

* * *

><p>Li didn't know if Kira was being brave or stupid when she saw him jump into the water after the enemy GOOhNs but guessed that it was more than likely a little of both. She turned her attentions to the strike force of about ten DINNs that were heading straight for the Archangel.<p>

The Raven operator immediately turned her attention to the enemy mobile suits that were making there way for the Archangel. As she did she saw the Lucifer and the White Knight making their way towards the approaching enemy forces while the Centaur took position on top of the Archangel and began to open fire on the closest mobile suits to its position.

Surprisingly the Skygraspers were holding their own against the DINNs. When Li had first seen them she had assumed that they would be near useless against the DINNs since they were just mobile armor class units. Thankfully she was one hundred percent wrong. The two Skygraspers weaved their way around the enemy DINNs firing their ordinance of high explosive missiles and armor piercing explosive tipped machine guns at the ZAFT mobile suits.

Before the start of the Bloody Valentines war the machine guns and missiles that the their mobile armors had been using for several years were originally designed for destroying tanks and similar vehicles. However after mobile suits and armored cores came along the Eurasian and the Atlantic Federation militaries quickly discovered that their mobile armor units' weapons were largely ineffective against the thick armor of mobile suit/armored core.

There were various solutions to this quickly evolving problem. One was simply to hire more Raven units to help fight alongside their forces. Although this worked for a short time it also led to many expenditures since Ravens charged high prices just to perform one mission. So the military leaders quickly had their weapons designers create new kind of bullet that could pierce through the thick armor of an AC or MS much more efficiently. Eventually the weapons scientists made a breakthrough with their research when they combined depleted uranium machine gun rounds with a heavily explosive tip that was affordable for the Earth Forces to quickly and easily mass produce.

Although this made their mobile armors' weapons much more effective against mobile suits in the atmosphere they were still easily outmaneuvered by both armored cores and their mobile suit counterparts. But in the hands of a skilled pilot such as Mu La Flaga they could easily eliminate enemy mobile suits with some effort put into it.

The rest of Black team along with the Skygraspers kept on the pressure trying to keep the DINNs more on the defensive than offensive. The DINNs had incredibly light armor that was made specifically for speed and agility which made them much more vulnerable to weapons fire. They exploited this weakness whenever they had the chance.

"Come on you bastards hold still so I can blow you the fuck up!" Adam roared from his sniping position on top of the Archangel as he fired his long range rocket launcher and sniper rifle in an attempt to eliminate the DINNs that were evading his shots and firing quick bursts from their assault rifles whenever they had the chance. So far only a small amount of damage had been done to the Centaur and it was slowly becoming worse much to the pilot's frustration.

"Hold still and let me shoot you god damn it!" the pilot yelled in frustration as he pulled down on the firing mechanism to the both the rocket launcher and the sniper rifle but unfortunately nothing fired. He then finally looked at the ammo counter that was now reading zero on both of the machine's weapons and that the autoloader had now just begun to reload both of his weapons.

Unfortunately this momentary pause gave the enemy mobile suits more than enough time to open fire on the armored core. Adam raised his core's left arm up and used it as a kind of shield to protect the cockpit area of the AC while it used its thrusters to maneuver off of the Archangel and away from the incoming machinegun fire.

Then the firing just suddenly stopped as a red energy blast shot straight through both of the DINNs went up in fiery explosions only half a second later. Before Adam could get on the communications thanking whoever just blew those bastards out of the sky a voice came over his communication link "Well now it looks like you owe me one" said Mu La Flaga before a Skygrasper mounted with the Agni cannon flew by the Centaur.

Adam chuckled "That I do, hey how does drinks on me sound the next time we hit a bar?" he offered not knowing what else to say to the ace pilot "Sounds good enough to me" La Flaga said before he started heading back to the main battle that was raging on around them.

* * *

><p>-Morassim's DINN-<p>

* * *

><p>Things had been going from bad to worse since the battle on the surface had started. The DINN squadron that Morassim was personally leading into battle was almost totally eliminated by the Archangel and her escorts. Now they had lost all contact with the GOOhN squadron that was supposed to take out the Strike.<p>

He and the two other remaining DINNs continued to fight while they waited for word of what had happened to the Strike and the GOOhN team but so far Morassim could think that he could guess what had happened but the ZAFT commander still held onto hope. Morassim's worst fears were realized when the Strike burst out of the water using its thrusters to fly upwards. And although the machine had no ranged offensive weapons it still had its beam sabers and its PS armor was still activated meaning that their weapons were all but totally useless against it.

Commander Morassim grit his teeth in anger, he had no choice they had to fall back and try again some other time "Attention all remaining forces fall back I repeat all remaining ZAFT forces are to fall back to a safe location and await further orders!" he yelled into his mobile suit's communications system. Almost instantaneously the battle weary pilots of Morassim's squadron complied with their commanding officer's orders and fell back firing some bursts at the enemy in an attempt to keep them from pursuing in which their opponents made no attempt to do so.

The commander was frustrated with both himself and his forces. There was just one ship, _one_ damned ship along with a bunch of glorified mercenaries and only a single mobile suit protecting it. Normally he would count the Skygraspers but since mobile armors were so insignificant when compared to mobile suits he didn't even include them.

However he would have his men continue to follow the Legged Ship just outside of their sensor range and when they finally seemed to think that they were safe, then he'd strike.

To be continued

Next: Island of Ravens


	18. Island of Ravens

Armored Seed

Chapter 18

Island of Ravens

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Armored core, I do however own Nathan and the mercenary unit that he is part of. I also don't own Rei Tanaka's fields of hope has been translated and is featured later in this chapter.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>It had almost been three and a half days since ZAFT had previously launched thier unsuccessful strike on the Archangel and things had quickly returned to normal. After the attack occurred when they were crossing the Red Sea was over captain Ramius continued to order all forces on standby alert just in case there would be another strike against the ship. All through the first two and a half days the crew of the Archangel was expecting another attack on the ship but thankfully it never came.<p>

When they got halfway through the second day captain Ramius lowered the alert level and people were much less on edge then they had been for the previous three days. It took almost another day before the Archangel would finally manage to make it out of the Red Sea and the island chain known as the Raven's Nest was growing steadily closer to them.

Hopefully once they arrived the Archangel and its crew would be able to use the autonomous region's neutrality to go in and use it as a port in the storm until they got their hands on more supplies and prepared make their run for the Atlantic Federation's headquarters in Alaska.

Right now they were only but a thirty minute flight away from the largest island in the Raven's Nest and very soon now the men who were in charge of the islands would soon open communications with them or just open fire with their numerous coastal defenses considering that they hated the Atlantic Federation even more than the PLANTs did.

As captain Ramius sat in her command chair she wondered if she was making the right choice by having the Archangel come here, after all this place had quite the reputation as one of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy. Hell it was even called that by all of those who inhabited each of the islands in the Raven's Nest and it wasn't often that criminals admitted something like that.

As they got closer and closer to the island Mir looked over from her station and at the captain "Captain Ramius we just received a hail from the center of the island" she said before Hackett chuckled

"Ah, so Leon Gakumba himself wants to address us directly, I had firmly believed that once we got within the detection radius of the radar that the man would simply just send one of his lackeys to come out and greet us instead" the Raven captain said while getting out a cigar that he kept in one of his pockets.

Before Hackett had a chance light the stick of tobacco Kuzzey spoke up.

"Excuse me captain Hackett but there's no smoking allowed on the bridge" he explained gesturing to the cigar that Hackett had in his mouth. Hackett looked surprised at first before looking down at his cigar and back up at the kid he then quickly and clumsily attempted to cover his tracks.

"Oh, uh, of course I knew that, I had absolutely no intention of lighting it" he said hurriedly while several of the other bridge officers, and even Natarle managed a small snicker while they watched captain Hackett squirm a little. After everyone regained their composure the main monitor that was located in front of the captain changed to that of a bald man of African descent sitting down at an office desk that was almost completely covered in large amounts of paperwork.

However the paperwork wasn't the man's focus however. Instead the man was giving Murrue a cold, hard look through his rounded glasses.

"Members of the Atlantic Federation and Eurasia are not welcome here, I seriously recommend that you leave here at once before I decide to have my men kick your sorry asses out" he warned before he noticed someone in the far edge of the room and locked eyes with captain Hackett before raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"Well now if it isn't captain Hackett of the Black Skulls I thought that you guys only did work for Orb and ZAFT after all you guys had quite the moral compass for a Raven group. So what the hell are you doing schlepping it out with these Third Reich rejects?" asked Gakumba.

Several members of the bridge staff appeared to be thoroughly insulted by the harsh comparison and a few of them looked as though they were about to make a retaliatory insult when Hackett spoke up preventing any of the bridge staff from quite possibly ruining any chance of negotiation that they had.

"I give you my word that these people aren't exactly on the same wavelength as the rest of the Atlantic Federation or the Earth Forces in general and for right now we need to dock at your port for a couple of days while we gather some supplies" he said rather bluntly before Gakumba started to let out a near uncontrolled laugh that lasted for a few moments before he regained control over himself again and calmed down for a moment before speaking.

"Do you really expect me to let any of those Atlantic Federation pigs into my home and-" Gakumba began to rant before he was cut off by Hackett before he could finish speaking.

"You owe me a favor Gakumba and I'm cashing it in right now" the bearded man said calmly causing Gakumba's face to acquire an annoyed scowl for a moment or two before the man relaxed and gave out an exasperated sigh.

"Very well, captain, very well, the Earth Forces ship can enter port here _but_ once you dock a representative of mine will soon be coming aboard your ship to lay down a few rules with your captain in regards your stay here" the man said relenting but Gakumba sounded very bitter about letting anyone that was even remotely connected to the Earth Forces into his territory.

Natarle looked as though she was about to protest to this, bringing someone who worked for a notorious criminal organization aboard a classified military vessel was completely insane. However before she could make her protests known to the captain Murrue had already responded.

"I accept your terms mister Gakumba we'll be entering the port shortly" said Murrue as the de facto leader of the Raven's Nest island chain began to send them the coordinates to the largest port that was had available due to the Archangel's sheer size that it would probably take up the entirety of some of the smaller ports that the Raven's Nest had available.

As they went towards the docks Natarle quickly made all of her protests known to the captain "Ma'am I must make my objections on allowing someone that's under the command of a crime lord like Gakumba aboard a highly classified Atlantic Federation warship they clearly have an ulterior motive for allowing us into their port" she said with a tone of absolute seriousness in her voice.

Before Murrue could respond to the lieutenant's objections Hackett let out a hearty chuckle.

"Lieutenant I understand your caution but Leon Gakumba provides a number of services to various, _customers_ shall we say around the world be it from gun running or just loaning out some of the Raven teams that are under his employ and the reason he is so successful is that he's honest about the products he's selling because if he wasn't then no one would be willing to do any sort of business with him. Besides almost fifteen years ago Gakumba had foolishly crossed the wrong person and that guy was about to do unpleasant things to him when I provided him with an alibi to save his ass" he explained but he refused to elaborate further as to why that was.

"What kind of situation was he in exactly?" asked Mu with a perplexed look who was now very curious as to just who in the hell a powerful guy such as Gakumba had managed to piss off so much.

"Sorry but I have been sworn to secrecy about that little incident after all I happen to be fond of the way that my internal organs are arranged at the moment thank you very much".

The port itself had been built from a large number of old warships that had been salvaged. There were pieces of ZAFT, the Earth Forces ships and even a few that were from Orb. As they went into the docks several of the bridge officers began to wonder if some part of the Junk Guild had maintained a presence on the island but most of them quickly put that thought out of their heads since the place was supposed to be completely rife with crime and because of that the Junk Guild wouldn't be able to maintain such a presence there.

When the Archangel began to close in on the dock they saw a handful of other military class ships that were docked as well. Each one was a sea based warship that ranged from small patrol boats to enormous aircraft carriers that had various types of mobile armors some of which belonged to the Atlantic Federation and Eurasia which were situated near the runway of the carriers ready to take off in a moments notice in defense of the Raven's Nest.

Natarle had to wonder if those mobile armors were stolen when some Raven unit or heavily armed pirate gang decided to raid an Earth Forces supply convoy or perhaps some deserters had just simply given them those machines in exchange for a safe haven away from the war if they weren't able to get into Orb. The Archangel slowed its advance so it wouldn't smash through the docks and end up killing anyone that was working there.

Just a few moments later the Archangel had finally managed to slow down to a full and complete stop. Now all they had to do was wait for the representative to appear.

It was another forty five minutes before the representative arrived at the docks along with several armed guards as security detail. As the representative and his bodyguards advanced towards the ship they were quickly making it clear that they didn't trust the Atlantic Federation any more than their leader did.

Once they received word that the representative was almost to the ship, captain Ramius, commander Mu La Flaga and captain Hackett waited at the entry hatch for the representative along with two guards that weren't as much there for security as they were mostly to just around keep up appearances for the crew.

Eventually the hatch opened with a hiss as it slid open to reveal the representative. He was a tall, imposing and intimidating man that was tall and appeared to have been a body builder at one point in his life. The man's face held a deep scowl when he saw the Atlantic Federation uniforms as if he had just looked at something disgusting.

"Mister Gakumba has ordered me to explain some of the terms of your visit to the Raven's Nest" the representative said with a low rumbling voice that sounded like a mix between a grunt and a growl.

"He says that only members of the Black Skulls are allowed to leave the ship and enter the Raven's Nest, however Those of you who are not part of the Black Skulls will be allowed to go above decks provided that you don't wear anything that identifies you as members of the Earth Forces, if you break any of these rules then this ship will need to leave the Raven's Nest immediately after all we can't risk our reputation by being seen helping any of you Atlantic Federation facists if you cannot abide by these rules then you shall be evicted from the area, forcefully if necessary" the man explained.

After hearing the terms of their visit Murrue was suddenly glad that lieutenant Badgiruel wasn't with them since she was a little more than patriotic when it came to the Atlantic Federation's policies and position in the ongoing war. Although Murrue knew full well that Natarle wouldn't respond to that kind of verbal jab she would be more than willing to discuss such matters with the captain in private about how she ran the ship. In fact Murrue had actually received three formal complaint reports from that woman ever since they had left Heliopolis.

Although some of Natarle's arguments on some of her decisions could be somewhat agreeable when you looked at it from a strategic standpoint but not on a morally acceptable one. Murrue would rather be damned a thousand times over before she did anything that would compromise any of her own personal morals.

"Very well we accept the conditions of the visit, I'll pass along the terms and conditions to the rest of the crew as soon as I get the chance" she explained. The representative then nodded and proceeded to the exit of the ship but before he could make it six feet he heard Mu's voice from behind him.

"Wait why couldn't Gakumba just tell us this over the communications channels?" he asked. The representative turned around.

"Because mister Gakumba is a very busy man, he is running a very large business and it requires his absolute attention and that is all that I am willing to say on the matter for right now" and that was all the man said before he left the ship and back to the CEO of the Raven's Nest.

* * *

><p>-Morassim's command sub-<p>

* * *

><p>Morassim and the rest of his men had been tailing the Archangel ever since their first encounter in the Red Sea waiting for the right time to strike. Since the Archangel had managed to dock at the Raven's Nest, most likely under the guise of a stolen ship they were now completely untouchable until they left.<p>

The Raven's Nest was under the protection of the Saint Petersburg convention, one of the subsections of that little treaty meant that small autonomous zones could not be attacked by a foreign military power unless they had been directly attacked first. And besides launching an assault against the Archangel now would mean that Morassim's remaining forces would be facing down countless Raven companies that had made the island chain their base of operations.

They would be totally slaughtered in probably less then two minutes if they mounted a strike on the Legged Ship now. Not to mention they would also be breaking international law and would most likely be branded criminals by just about everyone if they managed to make it out alive. So what Morassim and his men would do for the time being would be to simply wait until the Legged Ship left the area and then they would strike.

The man that was in charge of the Raven's Nest made no secret of his hatred towards the Atlantic Federation and their allies. The reason for this was because allegedly the Atlantic Federation had sent in a number of covert operations soldiers into their territory to inflict as much damage to their factory and weapons producing plants as they could since the Raven's Nest had not only been supplying a great deal of anti-Earth Forces organizations with guns and ammo but also with some of the Raven companies that they themselves had been sponsoring.

Now there were only a handful of Raven companies that did jobs for the Earth Forces on a regular basis. The largest group out of all of them was probably the Spades who were still using part of island chain as their launching point for all of their activities.

The leader of the island chain however didn't seem to notice or care that those Ravens were doing some business with the Earth Forces as long as they didn't bring anyone that belonged to anyone who was part of their little alliance within several hundred miles of the Raven's Nest.

Morassim was broken out of his thoughts when he heard one of the bridge officers ask "Sir what should we do now?" the man asked "We stay out of their waters for now I don't want any of our ships being spotted by anyone from the Raven's Nest" he ordered and then the communications officer quickly relayed the order to the other sub that was in Morassim's combat group.

If commander Morassim had to wait a little while longer for his chance at glory and a place in the history books then he would. The bearded commander then went back to thinking about the kinds of rewards that he would be given for destroying the Earth Forces only real hope of creating mobile suits that Naturals would be able to pilot.

* * *

><p>-Raven's Nest, city streets-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan walked through the bustling streets of the Raven's Nest heading for one of the few parks that were located in the area like he normally did if one was in the vicinity. The other members of his unit however just did what they would always do when offered shore leave.<p>

Drake and Adam would probably get wasted at some strip club/bar and inevitably call Nathan on his cell phone to come and pick both of the idiots up and take them back to the Archangel to sleep off the effects that the alcohol had been giving them. To prevent that he kept his phone shut off so that the two idiots would realize after calling him once that they'd have to find their own means of transportation.

Instead of going out this time Li was back at the ship trying to get a tan while she finished up one of her many romance novels. Commander Cross was checking in with some of his contacts that were located on the main island. And finally Carmen would more than likely be back in the infirmary on the Archangel treating some of the crew for seasickness or injures that they may have gotten while working on or around the ship.

As Nathan walked through the city streets his eyes were on the alert for anything out of the ordinary. The interior of the Raven's Nest was rife with crime. Various gangs and other criminals operated in almost every district and sometimes fighting broke out between rival gangs. However this was quite rare as no criminal organization wanted to bring Gakumba's wrath down upon them.

He had little tolerance for a gang war in his territory and whenever it did happen both opposing sides of the conflict were either forcibly evicted from the Raven's Nest or were simply imprisoned until Gakumba could decide what to do with them.

Gakumba allowed the gangs and other criminal organizations to operate in the Raven's Nest for one simple reason. Whatever profits that the gangs acquired let it be from selling drugs, guns or some of the more, physical pleasures the criminals had an obligation to turn over at least forty percent to Gakumba if they still wanted to keep themselves from mysteriously disappearing the day that Gakumba found out that they had screwed him over.

Nathan was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a beautiful and almost euphoric sounding song being played from a small music machine that a group of younger kids were sitting around it. The closer he got to the stereo the easier he heard the lyrics being sung.

_Beneath a veil so cold_

_You deeply sleep all alone_

_The melody of prayer, on lonely fields_

_A little light shined_

_I watched you as you dreamed_

_You laugh like a child_

_So dear yet so far_

_That is the promise of the future_

_That one day, on a green morning_

_One day, we will make it there_

_Because in this wintered sky_

_We still believe_

_Fields of hope_

_On the day we were born, we were embraced_

_And now we search for those gentle hands again_

_The melody of prayer; one vanishes,_

_And all begins again; a powerless, a painful continuation_

_One day, to that green morning_

_We'll cross through all these nights_

_Because that is the place that each of us search_

_Now within my own heart _

_I want to keep you warm_

_So dear, and yet so far_

_In the name of peace_

_Fields of hope_

_So dear and yet so far_

_The fields of promise_

_Fields of hope_

_Fields of hope_

The second that Nathan started to listen to the lyrics he quickly recognized the song's lead singer to be Lacus Clyne. He almost scoffed why was that girl supporting such a childish dream that he once had once held as close to his heart as the one he had shared it with.

It was a dream that was obviously never going to occur no matter how much Nathan wanted it to. As he stood there listening to the song continue playing he resolved himself to ask Lacus the very next time that he saw the girl as to why it was that she wanted to restore his old foolish beliefs.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Above Decks-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira and Flay were sitting out on one of the above deck areas eating their lunch and enjoying the fresh air the ocean in front of them. Both of them were a little disappointed when they weren't allowed to leave the ship. Sure the Raven's Nest was a crime ridden area but at least they'd be off of the Archangel for a little while. However since they weren't they might as well at least try and have some fun during their time off.<p>

Ever since they had passed the Red Sea when the two of them weren't in their shared quarters making out they had been using some of their free time up on the above decks to go on several "dates" after their shifts had ended as they weren't really in a position to go out to some fancy restaurant for quite a while. So they simply made do with just going up onto the outside deck area and sharing both lunch and dinner with each other while they conversed.

As continued to talk a question popped into Flay's head and she asked it almost instantly.

"Hey Kira, what are your parent's like?" she asked curiously causing her boyfriend to smile at the mere mention of his family "They're everything that parents should be, kind, supportive, that kind of thing" he explained before Flay looked down with a saddened look to her eyes as she remembered her own parents. Noticing this Kira looked at the redhead with concern written on his face "Are you alright Flay?" he asked.

Flay let out a sigh and although she was tempted to just say that she was fine Kira now knew her too well and would probably suspect that she was the exact opposite of fine and decided to just tell him the blunt honest truth.

"No, not really, It's just that my mom died shortly after giving birth to me, and my dad was always to busy with his political duties to ever really be around all that much" Flay then let out a dry humorless chuckle "I guess in a way I sort of envy you a little Kira you had parents that were always around and they cared a lot about you" she said depressingly.

Immediately after hearing Flay's confession about her parents Kira responded in an attempt to make her feel a little bit better "Hey I'm sure that your dad loved you, he just…" Kira trailed off trying to find the right words for a moment while his girlfriend looked at him with a look that urged him to go on "…He was probably just too busy with his job but I think that he treasured the time he spent with you"

Flay gave a sad sigh in response "I guess that you're probably right, I just wish that those moments we had were longer that's all" she said as she remembered the good times that she and her father had making her almost go onto the verge of tears.

Sure her father wasn't the most tolerable man when it came to Coordinators but she had hoped that if he had lived that maybe his prejudices would change at least a little upon meeting Kira. Sensing as how his girlfriend needed some comfort, Kira embraced Flay in a gentle hug.

As they sat there, embracing each other Flay mumbled "Thank you so much Kira, for everything" she said.

The couple continued to eat their lunch in peace and thoroughly enjoyed every second of each other's company.

* * *

><p>-PLANTs, Defense Committee Chairman, Patrick Zala's Office-<p>

* * *

><p>Zala was looking over the latest battle reports from those in action the surface. The Legged Ship continued to evade their efforts and was now temporarily making port in the Raven's Nest. Although the Ravens that had set up shop there had been incredibly useful to ZAFT several times during the war when he found out that they were harboring the Legged Ship which contained a cargo that, if put in the hands of the Earth Forces, could very well end up tipping the scales of the war in there favor made him clench his fists in barely restrained anger.<p>

Thankfully Zala shook his head and broke himself out of those thoughts, now was not the time to get himself worked up over something that he had little to no control over. Instead he decided to focus on what he did have control over, the construction of GENESIS was still proceeding as planned despite how difficult it could be to keep the construction of something that was so massive a secret but so far it was going along just as he had planned.

Once he got the data on some of the Gundams that had been captured during the attack on Heliopolis he ordered that some of the armor on GENESIS to be reinforced with several layers of phase shift armor as well as a mirage colloid system to the machine. Although these new features for GENESIS would easily take quite a bit of money out of his considerably deep pockets it was a necessary and more than worthy enough of a sacrifice in order for him to help propel humanity into a new and glorious age.

The only real problem with the new defensive equipment was that it would cause an enormous power drain to GENESIS and it wouldn't be able to fire until after the phase shift armor had been deactivated and even then it took a long time to charge and fire GENESIS.

Although Zala wanted to circumvent this problem every engineer that he had talked to said that it was impossible to both keep the additional defensive systems activated _and_ charge up GENESIS' main weapon at the same time. That would mean that he would be forced to rely on protection from military vessels as well as an enormous number of mobile suits.

Thankfully though that most of those he had selected for the protection of GENESIS were all completely devoted to both him and his cause and would like nothing more than to see that those on the Earth _burn_ for what had been done to Junius Seven. Breaking himself out of those thoughts he also began to remind himself of what was going on with his political rival, the current Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne.

That man had sent his daughter Lacus down to the neutral nation of Orb a few days ago. Officially she was going there to visit an old friend of the family. Unofficially Zala knew for a fact that she had been sent down there by her father to be a little safer since neither Zala nor anyone loyal to him had the first idea as to where her precise location was in that country.

This robbed Zala of a possible advantage over the Chairman, if he could arrange for Lacus' abduction he would have quite the substantial amount of leverage over her father which would be quite advantageous in both the short and the long term. However it seemed that now this wouldn't be the case and he'd just have to hope that something would come up quickly that he would hopefully be able use to his advantage or else he would have to resort to plan B.

The Defense Committee Chairman then heard someone knocking on the door "Come in" Patrick Zala ordered. The door proceeded to slide open and a young man in his early twenties stepped inside and was carrying a large stack of paperwork.

"Sir these are some more requisition orders for you to sign" he said putting the stack down in front of Patrick Zala causing the man to let out an almost annoyed sigh, he hated paperwork.

"Thank you mister Harris you may leave now" he said causing Harris to give a quick and respectful salute to the Defense Committee Chairman before he proceeded to exit the room and left Zala alone to sign his signature onto various pieces of paperwork.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Hanger-<p>

* * *

><p>Chief Murdoch looked on as several dozen large cargo containers were being loaded into the Archangel's hanger bay. From what Murdoch had been told by the one in charge of loading the containers that the contents of each were mostly ammunition for the Archangel's onboard weapons as well as most of the mobile suits and AC's that the Skulls had with them. Every single one of the containers had to be brought in by helicopter since there wasn't much other way for the weapons to get into the hanger.<p>

One of the helicopters had finished loading its contents into the hanger bay and reeled the winch that had been carrying back into its underbelly.

The weapon that had been dropped off was one of those newer beam rifles that had been developed by the Global Armaments corporation while the ammo for the Archangel's weapons had been manufactured from the Bernard and Felix Foundation. In fact it seemed that all of the weapons had been made from various corporations rather than the main government (If it could be called that) of the Raven's Nest.

This made sense however since a lot of Raven groups had chosen to do most if not all of the grunt work for the corporations that made these weapons and equipment by protecting their interests on different parts on the planet. And although there was a lot of tension between some of the corporations several parts of the St. Petersburg Convention prevented any large scale conflicts from occurring from between rival corporations.

However Murdoch thought that it was only a matter of time before the corporations figured out a way around that but that was unlikely as all government contracts with either of the opposing corporations would most likely be terminated and it would make things much more difficult for the corporations to wage war on each other.

The ship's chief engineer looked over at the ammo and weapons that Hackett had paid to be delivered to them and saw that no more deliveries were being made by the helicopters. Murdoch let out a sigh now he and the rest of the engineers would probably spend the rest of the day getting all of the ammo loaded onto the Archangel's weapon batteries and the weapons stored, and they were leaving in a couple of days if not tomorrow so they weren't going to have much time off once they left considering that ZAFT was still coming after them.

To be continued


	19. By Chance or Fate

Armored Seed

Chapter 19

By Chance or Fate

Disclaimer: I do not own Armored Core or Gundam Seed, they are both copyrighted by their respective owners. I only own my OC's

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Cafeteria-<p>

* * *

><p>It had been a couple of hours since the Archangel had left the Raven's Nest. Early that morning during the early shifts the Archangel's captain had announced that they were going to be leaving the island and getting back on their course to Alaska. Since Kira's friends from Heliopolis had already completed their early morning shifts on the Archangel's bridge. Although they had another shift coming up in a few hours they decided to enjoy what time that they had by talking amongst themselves and enjoying each other's company.<p>

Right now Kira's friends from Heliopolis were all gathered around a small lap top that Kuzzey had with him and were looking at the map feature of the electronic device and saw that the course that they were taking straight to Alaska which was several hundred miles away from another alternate route which would take them directly through Orb territory.

Not only would they have to go completely out of their way in order to go there but it would also take them at least extra week and a half for them to finally reach Alaska if they decided to take that route instead of the one that they were currently using.

"I guess it doesn't look very likely does it?" Kuzzey mumbled depressingly, he had been hoping that since they had stopped at the Raven's Nest while looking for supplies that maybe they were going to go to Orb on their way to Alaska as well. Sai who was standing next to the young boy "Obviously, going to Orb would take us completely off course" he explained as he looked at the distance between the two paths much to Kuzzey's disappointment.

Mir who was standing nearby also joined in the conversation "We're soldiers now Kuzzey and that means we can't just go and take a few days off from our duties while we're in the middle of an operation" she rebuked "Well yeah but we have the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative onboard so I just thought that we could-" Kuzzey started but was cut off by Cross who was sitting down nearby.

"Kid do you really believe that the captain is going to risk this ship and it's cargo by taking a several hundred mile detour just so that you can go and visit your home country?" he asked before letting out a chuckle.

At that little revelation Kuzzey's shoulder's sagged depressingly "I guess you're right". Just about everyone on the ship knew for a fact that once the instant that they got to Alaska that the Atlantic Federation top brass would probably end up giving both Cagalli and Kisaka a couple of tickets on the next civilian flight that would take them straight back to Orb.

"Besides kid, Cagalli's dad would probably just take her and her friend in and then kick us the fuck out on account of Orb's policies towards having foreign warship's make port there, after all everyone knows that their policy on remaining neutral is a stubborn one to say the least" Cross explained.

The door then hissed open and both Kira as well as Flay walked in most likely having walked all the way from the hanger for their break. "Hey guys how was the sim training?" Tolle asked. Flay looked over at them and said "Can we please _not_ discuss that right now?" she asked sounding frustrated.

Only just the day before both Flay had begun to do simulation battles that involved fighting at sea as well as space. Since Kira already had some experience with both, it was reletively easy for him but anyone could tell that Flay was struggling with both seeing as that it was a totally new environment to fight on.

The rest of Black team however all agreed that she was quickly starting to adapt such difficult environments. They also observed that if she continued to progress at the same pace that she had been going at during the last couple of days since they had left Africa she would be completely ready for both sea and space warfare in just a few days time if not sooner.

The two of them grabbed their lunches and proceeded to sit down with the rest of the group and continued to converse with each other.

Kuzzey continued to look up things on his laptop for another moment or two before turning to look at Sai "Hey you alright?" he asked wondering if the spectacled youth had gotten over that Flay had chosen Kira rather than him, both of whom were currently sitting very close to one another while they ate their lunch. Sai adjusted his glasses for a moment before responding.

"I've gotten over it" he said trying to reassure his friends as best he could "Besides one of these days I'll find my own girl"

Upon hearing Sai's statement one of the crewmembers from the Zeus immediately piped up from where he was sitting "Don't worry buddy I'm sure you'll have dozens of girls coming at you soon enough, I've heard that the ladies go positively nuts over a man in uniform!" the guy joked.

Apparently Drake who was sitting nearby had heard that last comment and decided to join in on some of the fun "I'll drink to that, hell I'll drink to anything really!" Drake called out while he and his buddy Adam all but chugged down some of the booze that they had smuggled aboard from the Raven's Nest just a few days ago. Normally it was seriously against all regulation to become intoxicated while serving aboard a warship but regulations had never really stopped Drake nor Adam from doing it while their shifts were over.

The rest of the crew in the mess hall just hoped that Natarle wouldn't show up while those two idiots were drinking, lord knew she had a real sick up her ass whenever captain Ramius did something on or off the field of battle that wasn't being done completely by the book.

* * *

><p>-Gibraltar Base, briefing room-<p>

* * *

><p>"Sir please I can get that little bastard I know it!" Yzak exclaimed loudly while the Hydras were getting rather fed up with the boy's anger issues as well as his own squad mates. However Lockhart had ordered his men restrain themselves prior to the beginning of the meeting as he had suspected that the kid would act like this, he didn't want any of them, especially Harold causing a scene in front of their employer. It would be far too unprofessional of them to do that and would probably negatively effect their future business if future employers found out their behavior towards annoying, easy to piss off pilots.<p>

But at the rate that things were going with him Lockhart had just about to start entertaining the possibility of having the little bastard getting hit by "Friendly Fire" during their next sortie with the Le Creuset team but quickly disregarded it. There wasn't nearly enough confusion during combat with those bozos for it to be credible. If the kid was going to get wasted by him or one of his it would have to be during a large scale military operation where there was a lot of fighting going on. So he was going to have to wait a while.

"Yzak calm down you're letting your anger get the better of you" Rau stated calmly trying to defuse his subordinate. At that moment the door opened and with a very bad sense of timing the other two members of the Le Creuset team walked through.

"Hey there, it's been a while" said Dearka with a friendly wave. However the two newcomers were more focused on Yzak's face which had an enormous scar that ran from the left side of his forehead diagonally towards to the lower right portion of his cheek.

The scar itself came dangerously close to his right eye which meant that when Yzak had been injured in combat, he was extremely lucky that the damage inflicted onto his face hadn't rendered his right eye completely useless.

"The wound has healed but he's decided to keep the scar until both the Legged Ship and the Strike have both been completely destroyed" Rau explained answering their unasked question. Harold however was having to resist the urge to make a snide comment about how the silver haired kid would have to get past the Red Eyed Devil first. During their last battle it seemed that the Red Eyed Devil was positively gunning for that kid and when someone got into the Devil's crosshairs it was unlikely that you'd get away in time before being put into a body bag, that is if there was even that much left to put in a bag.

Athrun looked over at the Hydras and didn't seem to recognize their uniforms as members of ZAFT. Upon seeing Athrun's questioning gaze Lockhart decided to introduce himself to the two new guys. he had read the reports and seeinga as how they were among the more competent members of the Le Creuset team he may as well show a little bit of respect "Hello, I'm commander Charles Lockhart, the leader of the Hydras" he introduced before he gestured to the rest of the men that were under his command.

"This is my second in command, Lieutenant commander Hauptmann Faulkner as well as the two others in my unit, Katrina Massey and Harold O'Connor" he said introducing the rest of his men.

Katrina looked directly at Athrun as well as Nichol and gave them a seductive little smile "I don't suppose that either of you two would like to spend some, _quality_ time together with me later?" she asked causing both of the pilots to blush uncomfortably at the offer that had been made by the woman in front of them which only made her more excited. Those two were still boys which for her made it much more enjoyable if she would be able to turn them into men.

Athrun was the first one to regain his composure and speak "Ma'am I appreciate the offer but I'm already engaged to another woman" he said causing her to give a mildly disappointed huff and then turned to Nichol "I don't suppose that you already have a nice woman in your life?" she asked "N-no and besides I'm only fifteen years old ma'am" he said uncomfortably before Katrina let out a groan, she had originally surmised that the green haired one was at least eighteen since he was in the military.

Why was it that the really cute looking ones always had to end up as either jailbait or otherwise spoken for already "Oh well, if circumstances change though, please just give me a call" she said looking at Athrun and gave the boy a wink while giving her best seductive smile at him.

Katrina then turned to look at Nichol "Sorry about that kid I didn't know that you were otherwise 'off limits' at the moment" she apologized.

Athrun looked almost shocked at what the woman had wanted to do with them just a few seconds after meeting them, it was almost baffling to the guy. He took a glance over at everyone else in the room and although Dearka and Yzak looked a little surprised at the moment, commander Le Creuset just shook his head at the scene in front of him as though he had a feeling that something like this was going to happen while the rest of the Hydras didn't look very surprised at their teammate's actions, apparently they were very used to things like this within their own unit.

Rau Le Creuset cleared his throat and grabbed the attention of everyone in the briefing room "Now I'm afraid that I have some rather bad news regarding the Legged Ship" he said while skimming over the reports that had been given to him earlier once again.

"Now as i was saying, apparently the Carpentaria base will be taking over the pursuit and destruction of the Legged Ship" he said much to the shock of everyone in the room. Even the Hydras looked disappointed especially since their entire payment (which was quite a large sum of funds) literally hinged on assisting the commander in destroying the Legged Ship as well as what had been housed on board the machine.

The first one to react was of course Yzak, who looked absolutely furious. The Strike was _his_ to destroy, no one else's and he'd be damned before he let someone else take that right away from him. "Sir you can't be serious! This is our mission, no one else's!"

However Rau Le Creuset didn't seem that fazed by it or at least that was what everyone assumed but because of the mask he always wore no one could really be sure even if one was to try judging by his tone since it was always calm and even. It was almost like the commander was a machine. Le Creuset showed little to no emotion during combat and even when he was off duty, he was always even tempered and carried out his orders with a disturbing amount of efficiency.

And if Lockhart was to be perfectly honest, it seriously unnerved him. Everyone on his team even Faulkner showed something while on and off the field of battle such as severe annoyance at certain squad members. Sometimes the Raven commander wondered just what the hell went on inside that man's head, however he quickly chased those kinds of thoughts away when he heard one of his more vocal teammates speak up.

"What the fuck man? You hired us and now you just say that we have to pack up and just-" Harold cut himself off when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Harold turned around in his seat a little intending on giving the person who had interrupted him in the middle of his tirade a piece of his mind.

When he finished turning around in his seat he saw Faulkner giving him a very angry look that all but screamed "Shut up, or die" this alone caused the drug addict to stop and as he began to feel his arms start to twitch almost uncontrollably. Knowing that this was just the start of his withdrawal symptoms, he discretely stuck a small syringe into the side of his right leg right above his knee.

The syringe itself carried only a small amount of his combat drug but this alone would keep the withdrawal's away for a while. Ignoring Harold's almost childish outburst commander Le Creuset decided to try and put almost everyone's minds at ease.

"I feel almost exactly the same way that you all do, however I'm afraid that I'm going to have to remain here until Spit Break has commenced however since you all clearly wish to continue hunting the Legged Ship and its cargo I'm having you all temporarily reformed into a new team which will be under the direct command of Athrun until sometime after operation Spit Break" Le Creuset explained.

Commander Lockhart was probably one who most approved of this decision to let Athrun take charge. Dearka and Yzak were to hotheaded and almost completely incompetent to be of much use other than as distractions or meat shields, Nichol was much more competent but he had the air of a follower about him rather than a leader and would probably crack under the pressures of being in command.

Lockhart noticed that Yzak looked much less than pleased with the arrangement. He'd probably have to let their new commanding officer that he may very well have to keep an eye on that guy for the time being.

"I wish you all the best of luck in hunting down the Legged Ship and the Strike, and with that this briefing is now adjourned" said the masked commander before he left the briefing room.

* * *

><p>-Morassim's ZnO-<p>

* * *

><p>Morassim smirked to himself today was the day that they were going to destroy the Atlantic Federation's Legged Ship. He could practically smell the amount of glory and prestige that he would earn as a result of his actions today. The ZAFT commander shook himself out of those kinds of thoughts he was getting distracted. Instead the bearded commander focused on the matter at hand, the destruction of the Legged Ship.<p>

The were going into shallow waters so it was impossible for him to make full use of his command sub. However it also provided him an advantage with his ZnO which was made for more amphibious attacks rather than just only underwater combat. This would give him an advantage in this kind of terrain.

Unfortunately though if Morassim was forced to fully surface he wouldn't be able to get much support from all that was left of the GOOhN team. Their mobile suits were built only for underwater combat and were both slow and clunky in their mobile suit form when they were on dry land. Fortunately though he still had a few DINNs left from their last sortie with the Archangel and he was keeping them in reserve in case he needed some backup and they were only a few moments away if he needed their assistance.

Morassim activated his communicator "GOOhN team commence the attack!" he ordered. The rest of the GOOhNs opened fire with their arm mounted torpedo launchers which sent about six torpedoes speeding towards the Archangel.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Bridge at that same moment-<p>

* * *

><p>The sonar system had picked several contacts again. Although at first thiswasn't much of a problem since they had been picking up large marine animals ever since they had left the relative safety of the Raven's Nest. However these were much larger than the random whale or larger than normal shark that they had been picking up for the past couple of hours. And just a few seconds later the man in charge of the sensors station ID them as GOOhN's along with one unknown type of mobile suit. Judging by the data Murrue had just been given she immediately concluded that they were most likely part of the ZAFT force that had attacked them earlier. Apparently they weren't done with those guys just yet.<p>

"Have all hands report to level one battle stations!" Murrue ordered before the combat alarm went off throughout the ship. "Ma'am I have several new contacts on the sonar, they appear to be torpedoes!" the man who was in charge of the sensors called out.

"Helmsman take us up now!" Murrue ordered to which the assigned officer did as he was told and pulled back on the control unit causing the Archangel to slowly rose up from the vast expanse of ocean waters and fly above the water's shining surface. Thankfully all of the torpedoes missed their marks which thankfully prevented any kind of damage to the Archangel's hull.

However the GOOhN team wasn't quite out of the fight just yet. The water based mobile suits surfaced and opened fire with their fin mounted assault cannons. And although these wouldn't do much damage at first it would eventually do quite a lot of damage to the Archangel if they were left to continue firing.

In response to the threat the Archangel opened fire with its lower mounted Igelstellungs along with its Valiant linear cannons.

* * *

><p>The second that the combat alarm went off Kira and Flay as well as the pilots that were in the Black Skulls immediately went to their assigned locations. When Kira entered the hanger he saw that most of Black team was already there waiting for him and Flay to arrive.<p>

They each quickly exchanged pleasantries with one another before they ran to their machines. Kira quickly entered his machine and activated the Gundam. Before making his way onto the catapult he grabbed the anti-ship sword from the weapon rack in front of him "Yo Kira, you do realize that beam weapons are completely useless underwater right?" Adam asked trying to make sure that the kid didn't do anything stupid.

Kira turned on the transmitter on the Strike and responded "Yeah I know but even with the beam sword not being in use I can still use it as a regular sword" he explained. Kira could faintly hear an "Ah" in understanding over the other end of the communications link.

"Everyone cut the chatter and get ready for combat! Those who are already locked and loaded hit the catapult, those that aren't get your weapons equipped and get ready to move" Cross ordered over the communication link before and the other members of Black team headed straight for the catapult all of them intent on getting out into combat.

One by one the armored cores launched out of the Archangel and eventually it was Kira's turn on the catapult. Aside from the killing in battle, Kira hated the brief pause the catapult gave before sending him right out into battle. It was almost nerve-racking for him, the brief quiet second and a half of calm before the battle started. However just as soon as it had begun it was over as the catapult launched him outwards and onto the field of battle.

The second that he was out there he saw a large number of DINNs making strafing runs at the Archangel while it's igelstellung turrets attempted to fire back at them with only a small amount of success. Only one of the DINNs was shot down but the rest continued their relentless and unwavering strafing runs on the Archangel.

Since Kira didn't have any ranged weapons on him at the moment aside from the head mounted vulcan guns that were specifically created to be used against incoming enemy missiles attacks and small lightly armored vehicles. Since neither were being used here at the moment it was unlikely that he would waste both his time and ammunition using his vulcan guns against such targets.

Assault cannon fire streaked right past the front of the Strike making Kira look down to see where the shots had come from. The young Coordinator then saw a small number of GOOhNs opening fire at him. Before he could go down and intercept them he saw that the White Knight which had been hovering directly above the water had begun to open fire with a large number of antisubmarine missiles from the leg mounted launchers which had been installed a few days earlier.

Each one hit the water with a resounding splash and underneath the waves. Just a few moments later there were a fair number of resulting explosions from the antisubmarine missiles but Kira couldn't tell if they were hits or misses as they were in shallower waters.

"This is commander Cross splash two hostiles!" the Raven operator called out over the communication unit.

However in his attempt to eliminate the threat that the GOOhNs posed, Cross had used up all of his torpedoes and ejected the rather bulky launcher's from his armored core's legs. The launcher's hit the water with a resounding splash and sank beneath the waves. Now clear from possible friendly fire, the Strike dove beneath the surface of the ocean its pilot intent on engaging the GOOhNs that were waiting for him beneath the water.

Once under the waves he saw that a number of the GOOhNs had already opened fire with their torpedoes. Kira activated the thrusters and managed to evade most of the torpedoes but a couple managed to hit the machine and hit the phase shift armor which caused the Strike shake from the impact of the blast. One of the GOOhN's made the mistake of charging at Kira who swung the anti-ship sword as it came at him and neatly bisected the mobile suit in half.

Unfortunately Kira noticed another underwater based mobile suit that he hadn't seen before, it was painted green unlike the GOOhNs and seemed to be a little more bulky than they were, if Kira ventured a guess he would say that this was probably the leader of the group that had been hounding them for the past couple of days.

Morassim was fully aware of how badly things were probably going for the DINNs that were fighting above the ocean's surface but it was now or never for Morassim and his men and he'd be damned if they just retreated back to the relative safety of his command ship and withdraw. He'd be the biggest laughing stock in all of ZAFT "GOOhN team break off attack, I'll take care of this guy, you continue pursuit of the Legged Ship" Morassim ordered to which the rest of his squadron broke off and began to attack the Archangel.

Now the time had come for commander Morassim to cement himself in history as the man who had eliminated the Strike as well as the Legged Ship. He opened fire with his torpedo launchers at the Strike which immediately took cover behind several large rocks. None of the torpedoes hit the intended target and instead either missed completely or just hit the rocks that the Strike was taking cover behind.

The ZnO that Morassim was using then transformed from its mobile armor form and into a mobile suit form that was almost as bulky as the GOOhNs that were under his command. Deciding to take advantage of his environment Morassim used the superior speed of his mobile suit and rammed right into the Strike before stopping and letting the Strike fall backwards while he opened fire with his torpedoes.

As he didn't want to die immediately went upwards in an attempt to evade the attack and fortunately for him the maneuver paid off and each of the torpedoes missed. However that was only a short term victory as he still had the ZnO to deal with which was continuing to press its attack against Kira.

* * *

><p>Now seeing that there wasn't anything that he could do about the attacking GOOhNs that were still hiding underneath the water commander Cross turned his attention over to the group of DINNs that were continuing to strafe the Archangel. He also noted that most of their upper igelstellung turrets were having a difficult time tracking each one.<p>

The commander opened fire with his machine gun and peppered up one of the DINNs that had gotten too close to his location and the explosive rounds completely shredded the machine and reduced the once impressive machine to little more than a flaming piece of metal that fell into the ocean.

He was about to light up another DINN when it was shot down by a series of hits from the Agni cannon that had been mounted onto Mu's Skygrasper just the day before. As Cross watched the DINNs engage the two Skygraspers it was almost reminiscent of a fighter pilot movie that he had seen once when he was younger but he quickly pushed such thoughts out of his head and joined his fellow pilots in the dogfight.

"Hey if you assholes would mind holding still for just one second so I could put a high velocity round through your cockpits that would be great!" Adam announced angrily over an open channel from his sniping spot atop one of the archangel's legs while he continued to fire at the DINNs who were nimbly dodging most of his sniper shots. A few of his shots had managed hit a couple of the DINNs but they were only grazing shots which only did a minor amount of damage to the mobile suits.

One of the DINNs saw an opening to take out the Centaur but before it got close enough to do any real damage the DINN's pilot heard Adam say "Got ya now bitch!" before a high velocity round flew from the Centaur's sniper rifle as well as a compliment of rockets courtesy of the mid range missile launchers that had been mounted on the Centaur's back.

The high velocity round from the sniper rifle went straight through the mobile suit's head which destroyed the optical sensors which completely blinded the mobile suit's pilot from all that was going on outside his cockpit but that didn't last long as the DINN was then shredded to pieces courtesy of the mid range missiles.

Seeing that his job on that one mobile suit was done Adam went back to attempting to snipe the other enemy DINNs from his vantage point on the Archangel and unlike with his previous kill it was much more difficult for him to hit the ZAFT mobile suits due to the speed that they possessed.

Flay was having an even harder time than Adam since most of the DINNs had noticed that she was probably the weakest member of the group and had used that to their advantage. She was almost completely pinned down by the outstanding maneuvering abilities of the three DINNs that had picked her as a target and as they quickly approached she opened fire with both her submachine gun as well as the shoulder mounted rocket pods.

At least dozens of the rockets flew out of their resting spots in each of the pods and sped outwards in all directions. One of the DINNs was riddled up with SMG fire wile the other two were completely obliterated by the sheer amount of rockets that had slammed into them. Flay let out a sigh of relief that now she was no longer being pressured by the enemy.

The Beta's pilot was about to go back and reengage the enemy and saw that Li's armored core, the Fury was nearby and was doing remarkably well against the other DINNs. Li sent three shots from the shoulder mounted energy blaster out at the attacking DINNs each one striking home and hitting the DINNs in the chest area or the wings which sent them all plummeting out of the sky like flies after being hit with a swatter.

The Lucifer meanwhile had sped towards one of the DINNs whose machine gun had overheated from prolonged use and was impaled through the chest by the Lucifer's energy blade before being bisected. Not wasting any time Nathan targeted the nearest hostile and opened fire with his beam rifle blowing several holes into the nearest DINN's chest and shoulders.

One of the shots punctured the mobile suit's reactor before it exploded causing the DINN to go up in a fiery explosion. Not wasting any time celebrating his victory Nathan went to go and engage the other DINNs

Flay relaxed even more as she notice that other than a few minor problems that the battle was mostly going in their favor and she guessed that it wouldn't be long until they completely eliminated the attacking DINNs. However she couldn't help but wonder at how Kira was doing underneath the surface and hope that he was alright.

* * *

><p>After the Archangel had finally managed to determine the approximate location of the ZAFT command sub that had been following them ever since they had finally left the Red Sea both Mu La Flaga and Cagalli broken off from the dogfight and went out after it.<p>

"Okay we should be coming up over the target in just a few moments" Mu said as he once again looked over the sonar data that he had been provided by the Archangel.

As they approached the spot where they were told that the enemy was hiding out both pilots saw that there was an unknown signature directly below them. Cagalli flipped the switch on her Skygrasper's command console and a hatch located on the Skygrasper's underbelly opened to reveal six antisubmarine missiles that were more than ready for launch.

Now all that she had to do now was wait until she got a lock on the ZAFT sub. The targeting computer let out a high pitched beeping noise for a few seconds before stopping and the targeting reticule in the center of the screen turned red signaling that she could fire when ready.

Using her thumb she flipped open off the triggering mechanism's safety on the joystick and flipped the switch while Mu La Flaga did the same in his mobile armor. Six missiles soared out from the hatches of both Skygraspers and at the enemy sub. Each one hit the water and went straight underneath and hit the sub in several different parts of the hull.

* * *

><p>-Morassim's command sub a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Morassim had ordered his command sub to stay away from the area that he and his men were fighting in since they wouldn't have much maneuvering capabilities if they came under attack but kept them close enough to provide reinforcements to him in case of an emergency and since most of the DINNs had been dropping like flies.<p>

Captain Grant had serious doubts about Morassim's ability to lead this particular mission as this was the second time that they had gone after the Legged Ship and the although the Le Creuset team had gone after them several times they hadn't lost a single soldier they hadn't lost nearly as much as they had in doing so.

That mediocre commander was blinded by his own delusions of pride and glory and he was probably going to get them all killed at this rate. Within the first few minutes of this battle they had lost more than half of their DINNs to the enemy. And now the commander wanted him to send more of his men into the meat grinder.

Although captain Grant had tried his best to protest against Morassim's battle stratagems his commanding officer wouldn't pay any heed to a word that that captain Grant had said to him.

Seeing as how he no longer had any choice in the matter the captain offered up a silent prayer to whatever deity was listening in hopes that they would live through this fools errand of a mission. "Captain, sir we've begun to surface and our remaining DINNs are ready for launch" called a young officer from his station on the sub's bridge.

"Good get them ready for-" he started but was cut off by the sensors officer that was nearby "Sir we have two mobile armors approaching!" he announced. Grant began to panic they were totally defenseless like this, most of their weapons were for anti-ship duty, in fact their only real defenses against airborne threats was to either dive or get the DINNs in the air "Get those reinforcements airborne right now!"

"Sir they're launching antisubmarine missiles!" one of the officers called out "Evade, evade!" the captain ordered but less than half a second later the command sub was rocked by several explosions. The captain noticed that they were still in one piece and turned to his first officer "Report!"

The first officer typed several commands into his console before responding "We have multiple hull breaches and several compartments of the ship have started to fill up with water!" he announced.

Although under normal circumstances they would just launch the mobile suits out like missiles while submerged but now due to the hull breaches they had to surface first or they'd end up sinking before they'd even get a chance to get the reinforcements out of the ship.

"Helmsman get this thing to the surface, _now_!" captain Grant frantically ordered.

* * *

><p>As the massive sub came upwards towards the surface the two Skygraspers came around for yet another run on their enemy only this time they would have to wait until the sub finally surfaced as they had expended all of their antisubmarine missiles during their last attack run.<p>

"Okay here it come's get ready" Mu ordered while Cagalli started to lower her Skygrasper's altitude a little too much for his comfort "Careful kid any lower and you'll have to swim back to the Archangel!" he warned and for a moment thought that it went unheeded when Cagalli pulled up to avoid crashing into the sub "I warned you princess" Mu remarked much to Cagalli's displeasure. "I thought I told you guys not to call me that!" she yelled into the communication unit but Mu paid her no mind and instead opened fire with the Agni Cannon sending several shots into the enemy sub which soon after being hit burst into a fiery explosion.

Unfortunately the two pilots didn't have a chance to celebrate their victory. Somehow a DINN had managed to survive the firestorm that had taken the command submarine and the machine flew right out of the flames and straight at them while firing its machine gun at the two Skygraspers it's pilot fully intent on avenging his fallen comrades.

Both Skygraspers veered away from each other so that the DINN would have a harder time tracking them both but unfortunately the DINN class mobile suit had been built specifically for aerial dog fights in mind so it was relatively easy for it to track the Skygraspers.

Mu's attempt at getting a decent bead on the enemy pilot was not only made difficult by the DINN's maneuverability but somehow Cagalli had managed to end up getting in his crosshairs every time he thought that he had a clear shot at the bastard.

"Hey kid can you please stop getting in the way! I can't hit that asshole if you keep ending up in my crosshairs!" the pilot ordered his voice laced with frustration.

The DINN continued to evade every chance that Mu had at hitting the damned thing and to make matters even worse it managed to land a couple of shots on Cagalli's Skygrasper. Thankfully it missed the fuel unit as well as any other vital part of the machine but it was still giving off a smoldering trail

"Cagalli you okay?" Mu asked almost frantically and was mostly relieved when he heard the girl's next statement "Yeah I'm fine there's just a moderate amount of damage to the navigation system, I'm heading back to the Archangel now, I'm not going to be of much use like this" Cagalli's Skygrasper began to fly as quickly as it could back to the ship.

Unfortunately the DINN from earlier was still trying to shoot her right out of the sky but changed targets after it was almost hit by a round from Mu's Agni cannon. The DINN began to return fire on Mu's Skygrasper but it continued to miss thanks to Mu's piloting. Mu turned the Skygrasper around and fired off several shots from the Agni cannon. Two missed the intended target but the third and fourth hit severing both the DINN's gun arm as well as blowing it in half.

The DINN's upper half which was still flying thanks to the wings and flight unit that had been built into the back had started to sparkle with electricity just seconds before it exploded. The few remaining pieces of the now destroyed DINN began to fall into the ocean.

* * *

><p>-Underwater-<p>

* * *

><p>Morassim knew that he was losing the battle. The last of the GOOhN team had been completely annihilated by the Legged Ship as well as its Raven allies who had used antisubmarine missiles that were mounted onto their AC's in order eliminate anything that so much as resembled a GOOhN mobile suit. And now Morassim had lost all contact with the command sub as well as the DINNs that were brought in to provide him and his men with air cover.<p>

All of the commander's dreams of glory and prestige came crashing down like a plane that had run out of fuel mid-flight. However Morassim still had a chance to make it out of this FUBAR mission alive, if he could eliminate the Strike he could at least then try and make it back to Carpentaria base and get some reinforcements before he went back to hunting down the Legged Ship along with its other escorts.

Morassim had his ZnO lunge forward desperate to eliminate the one who he saw as the only reason that all of his dreams of glory were all but destroyed.

Kira was about to try and counter the enemy mobile suit's attack. Unfortunately the ZnO was far too quick and the machine then used its left claw to cover the Strike's head before the ZnO's clawed hand began to squeeze intent on destroying the mobile suit's only real method of sight so that when the head was destroyed commander Morassim be able eliminate the Strike at his leisure.

However Kira wasn't willing to allow the enemy commander to carry out his attack plan.

Not wasting any time the Strike pulled out its Armor Schneider knives and without any hesitation shoved the knife in its left hand straight into the side of the ZnO's head which disrupted the machine's optical sensors causing the video feed from the sensor to the cockpit to be disrupted while the other knife went into the clawed arm that had almost completely covered the Strike's head.

The combat knives dug into the machinery of the ZnO and damaged much of the circuitry in the clawed to the point that the pilot was actually forced to fall back before either of the knives could do anymore damage to the ZnO.

Morassim tried to fall back and then go back on the offensive however whatever those knives had done to his ZnO had made his mobile suit's controls a little more than sluggish.

The ZAFT commander looked up from his command console and saw that the Strike had already begun to charge him with its anti-ship sword in hand and at the ready.

Before commander Morassim could even utter a single angry curse at the one that had completely ruined the biggest and perhaps only real chance that the commander had at glory the anti-ship sword had sliced the ZnO cleanly in half causing it to buckle for a second or two before exploding taking the glory hound of a commander with it.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT mobile suit transport, several thousand feet in the air-<p>

* * *

><p>Athrun looked out the vast, endless blue sky that was dotted with clouds with a sense of awe. He had never been to Earth before as he had never left the PLANTs until he had joined up with the ZAFT military. The expanse of blue sky around the ship seemed almost completely endless to Athrun much like the dark void of space obviously was.<p>

Since there was a small mechanical problem with the transport that he was going to be using Athrun was forced to wait almost two hours while Nichol and the others had left Gibraltar base. Every second that he had to wait almost felt like an hour, as Athrun sat there he wondered how things were going back home, his father had been much more busy than usual lately and seemed rather on edge and almost anxious about something.

Athrun had also seen that there was also a strange look in his dad's eyes one that Athrun couldn't quite place but they looked almost cold and lifeless, at the time Athrun had simply written it off as just stress from his duties as chairman of the PLANTs Defense Committee. Athrun had been using that excuse in his mind for quite a while now and knew for a fact that his father's stress could also have been brought on by the fact that he was still grieving over Athrun's mother's death from the massacre on Junius Seven.

While Athrun continued to look outside the window from where he was sitting he heard several loud noises coming from below him. At first he thought that it was just the sound of the engines or something kind of mechanical noise that was going on in part of the aircraft.

However Athrun quickly realized that these noises weren't coming from the engines or the ship at all but sounded suspiciously like something that was more akin to explosions from a battle. Desperate for some answers Athrun immediately got up off of his seat and quickly made his way to the cockpit of the transport.

The door leading into the cockpit slid open and Athrun leaned into the cockpit to see what the pilots were doing "What's going on?" he asked before he heard another boom coming from far below them. The co-pilot turned his head and looked at Athrun from his seat in the cockpit "There's a battle going on down there sir" he explained.

Athrun was about to ask if he could go out there and assist the ZAFT forces when the pilot apparently knowing already what the pilot was about to ask immediately cut him off "I'm sorry sir but without a guul unit you won't last more than five minutes" the pilot explained (a guul unit is a portable atmospheric sub flight system that was made specifically for mobile suits that were incapable of flying in the atmosphere) .

Athrun inwardly cursed, he should have had a guul unit be put into the transport carrier before he left Gibraltar and now all they could do was continue onwards and hope that the ones who were fighting down there wouldn't notice the ZAFT transport that was flying overhead. However since they were flying at almost ten thousand feet up in the air that possibility was slim to nil.

However Athrun was proven wrong a little more than a second later as one of the pilots immediately spoke up "Sir we have an unidentified contact closing in fast it looks like it's silhouette matches an Atlantic Federation Skygrasper!" the pilot warned.

The transport plane shook almost violently "Commander Zala the enemy Skygrasper has opened fire on us!" one of the two pilots exclaimed. Although Athrun really wanted to point out that he wasn't technically a commander yet he was only given temporary leadership of the Le Creuset team he decided that now wasn't really the time to be making corrections on almost trivial matters.

"What kind of guns does this thing have?" he asked while the other pilot just looked at him incredulously.

"You're kidding me right? This is a mobile suit transport not a battle cruiser!" he yelled as the transport shook once again "Ah hell, now we have some serious damage to the starboard engines, commander you need to get out of here we aren't going to survive this" the pilot ordered.

Athrun looked almost completely horrified at the mere suggestion that he should just leave them. Not once since he had joined ZAFT had Athrun Zala ever been forced to abandon a comrade in arms on the battlefield and he had absolutely no intention of starting now.

Before he could make his unspoken protests known the ship's pilot continued to speak "This transport is no match for a Skygrasper sir, we're going down anyways so we might as well lesson the loss. Now go!" he ordered. Athrun nodded and very reluctantly made his way to his mobile suit while the enemy fighter continued to pound on the transport unit.

* * *

><p>-Cagalli's Skygrasper-<p>

* * *

><p>When Cagalli had started to make her way back to the Archangel she quickly started to get lost due to the navigation system being heavily damaged. As Cagalli attempted to get her bearings she saw a ZAFT transport plane flying nearby through her cockpit and wondered what that thing was doing way out here.<p>

Not wanting to waste an opportunity to take out something that may be attempting to provide the enemy with reinforcements to attack the Archangel Cagalli opened fire with the turret mounted energy gun. The beams struck the enemy transport plane several times but then Cagalli noticed that the weapon was beginning to overheat.

The energy weapons on the Skygraspers built up more heat than mobile suits and armored cores due to the fact that the sheer size of some of their weapons that they carried built in cooling units that ejected the excess heat out of the weapon. She quickly switched to her other onboard weapons that consisted of duel nose mounted machine cannons as well as six mid range anti aircraft missiles.

Cagalli switched to the missiles and waited a few seconds before the reticule in the center of the cockpit's finished locking on to the target and flipped the switch on the joystick which sent two of her six missiles out into the open air where they fell in free fall for second and a half before they sped off towards the enemy troop transport which began to spit out flares in a number of different directions.

The two missiles veered off course and went after the flares causing Cagalli to silently curse to herself. '_Of course those assholes would use flares, they wouldn't willing to go down that easily'_ she cursed inwardly while she continued to dodge more of their machine gun turret fire as her Skygrasper's targeting system locked onto the enemy ship once again and this time Cagalli fired off all of her remaining missiles at the enemy ship. The transport plane had used up most of its flares in an attempt to stay away and launched the last flares that they had on them but unfortunately this time only one of the missiles veered off to chase the flares.

The three other missiles struck the transport plane dead center causing smoke and fire to come out of where it had been hit. At the same time though Cagalli's Skygrasper had been hit as well and it had begun to slowly lose altitude and as it did Cagalli saw the rear mounted cargo bay doors open up and a mobile suit fall outwards. The daughter of Orb's Chief Representative recognized the model instantly, it was the Aegis.

'_What the hell is that thing doing way out here'_ Cagalli wondered despite the situation that she was in as she attempted to glide the crashing Skygrasper down towards a nearby island. Cagalli quickly lost view of the Gundam since not only was it not attacking but she had to concentrate on landing the Skygrasper.

As the island came steadily closer Cagalli attempted to maneuver the Skygrasper so that it would crash into the beach of the island. That way it would be easier for a rescue team to locate her as well as give her a much better chance at getting out of the cockpit in one piece once the aircraft had finished landing.

Cagalli unconsciously held her breath while the Skygrasper's altitude continued to descend and almost hit the water just a few feet from the beach but it continued to go forwards for a few moments more until it came to a full and complete stop. Before she opened up the cockpit Cagalli decided to go and look over her inventory, a nine millimeter pistol with three clips, a first aid kit and some signal flares. Taking all of them she opened up the Skygrasper's cockpit and climbed out of the damaged vehicle.

Once out Cagalli looked around trying to get her bearings a little and saw something that helped to raise her spirits, the Gundam that had fallen out of the sky had crashed onto the island as well only it was a quite a ways inland and it looked to be completely intact.

Since that appeared to be the case it was likely that the communications unit inside was working as well and if it was the blonde haired girl would be able to radio the Archangel and get some help.

To be continued


	20. Stranded

Armored Seed

chapter 20

Stranded

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: I own neither Gundam Seed nor do I own the Armored Core series they all are owned by their respective copyright owners. Do I really need to keep putting this in?<p>

A/N: BTW if your going to review could all of you please try and at least make your reviews longer than just one sentence please.

And for those of you who are waiting for some Mu x Murrue stuff it is going to occur in later chapters.

* * *

><p>-Orb-<p>

* * *

><p>As reverend Malchio watched Lacus play with the children that lived at the orphanage that he had been running for almost twenty or so years he felt a warm smile tug at his face. The children that lived at the orphanage had always enjoyed Lacus' company and all but treated her as though she were their mother. Malchio had always known that there had been something very special about Siegel Clyne's daughter.<p>

Lacus had the most profound ability to inspire and restore the hope in people's hearts which was probably one of the greatest gifts that a person could be given. As he continued to watch the children play Lacus however reverend Malchio's face took on a much more serious expression as his mind settled on some much more important matters.

When Siegel had contacted him just a few days ago and the man seemed very nervous about something, he had been hiding it well of course, but since Malchio had been friends with Siegel Clyne for well over a decade it was easy to tell when it was that the man was hiding something or when he was nervous.

There wasn't much that would make mister Clyne nervous about something other than the wellbeing of his family. After all Lacus was the only true joy that Siegel had left in the world since his wife had passed away shortly after having given birth to their daughter. The fact that the man had sent his only daughter here probably meant that was worried that something might happen to her if she stayed in the PLANTs.

This led the reverend to question as to what would be so dangerous lurking inside what was quite literally the center of ZAFT controlled territory? It was highly unlikely that members of the Blue Cosmos could even get into the PLANTs now since ZAFT had tightened its borders considerably. That was when another thought hit him.

Maybe the threat wasn't coming from outside the PLANTs at all but perhaps from inside. Malchio did know for a fact that there were a fair number of radical political groups that had been pushing the military ever since the war had started to do some kind of military action to the Atlantic Federation and its allies that would make the massacre at Junius Seven look like a small picnic.

It was certainly possible that those radical groups would attempt to try and use Siegel's daughter as leverage to further their own agenda. And in order to keep something like that from occurring Siegel probably sent her here, since the orphanage that reverend Malchio ran was in an undisclosed location out of city limits, there were only a handful of people knew of reverend Malchio's connections to the Clyne family and Siegel trusted all of them with his life.

Besides, Malchio had a very hard time believing that Lacus' father would do something that would endanger innocent lives especially those that were still only just children.

He turned his attention back to the group of children that were playing with their guest and smiled as he tried to let some of the troubles that he was having leave his mind for at least a few moments.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Only a few minutes had passed since Mu La Flaga, Flay, Kira and the rest of Black team had finally returned to the Archangel after the battle had been finished. Upon their return to the ship the pilots that had found that Cagalli still hadn't returned to the ship yet nor had she even reported in since radioing Mu and telling him that she had to head back since her Skygrasper had been damaged in combat.<p>

Mir attempted to contact her for almost five minutes but the only thing that she received on the other end was nothing other than white noise.

Sai who had been manning the sensors wasn't having much luck either. The only thing that he could confirm with absolute certainty was that Cagalli was now currently somewhere outside of their sensor range which wasn't much of a distance seeing as how the N-Jammers in the area had been wreaking absolute havoc with most of their long range equipment.

Due to Natarle's actions in past sorties it was easily foreseeable that the recently promoted lieutenant would be the first person on that bridge to openly suggest that they simply declare Cagalli MIA and just continue on their mission to reach the Atlantic Federation's headquarters located in Alaska without so much as even conducting a short search for her.

After Natarle had attempted to get her point across with Murrue, Raphael instantly interjected and heavily insisted to the captain that she should send out a few search parties to look for Cagalli for at least a day and a half. This disagreement quickly escalated into a full blown argument that was now bordering on a shouting match.

"Are you suggesting that we just leave her out there to die lieutenant? She could still be alive and in need of assistance and we'd just be abandoning her!" Raphael all but roared at Natarle who was still standing where she was earlier and remained completely impassively towards the other man.

If there was one thing that Raphael hated more than cowards it would have to be those who were be willing to so callously leave their fellow soldiers behind on the field of battle. Raphael had never done such a thing before in his entire life and he had absolutely no intention of starting now.

However Natarle still remained as impassive as ever "Our mission is far too important to risk just to recover one person who is more than likely dead by now" Natarle replied calmly hoping that the logic would sink into the man's head.

Unfortunately Natarle's words only made Raphael's scowl deepen while his hands began to clench and his left brow had developed a small twitch which was a classic sign for those that knew him that Raphael was almost on the verge of beating the living shit out of someone in an uncontrollable rage.

"Listen Lieutenant I've had just about enough of your-" Raphael started his tone bordering on murderous before he was interrupted by the Archangel's captain.

"Enough!" Murrue yelled causing everyone on the bridge to flinch for a moment. "Although our mission to get to JOSH-A is imperative I will not leave one of my soldiers out there to die, if she is not found by sunset tomorrow we will move on to Alaska" she explained.

Captain Hackett who was standing nearby who had decided to stay out of the argument seeing as Raphael was already giving the same arguments for him albeit in a much less calm and ordered manner so he decided that it may be prudent to try and simply stay out of it.

After all Raphael was probably one of the more…vocal members of the Black Skulls when it came to his beliefs and philosophies and was never afraid to let anyone else know just what they were and was both incredibly quick and fierce when it came to the defense of his beliefs.

Hackett let out a sigh. He knew that all of the other pilots that had returned from combat were now seriously itching to go out on a search and rescue mission to find their missing compatriot. As he walked towards the hanger he wondered if Cross and the others were already getting prepared to leave with or without the captain's permission.

After all a missing comrade in arms was something that they all took very seriously and even if the captain wasn't going to give them permission to search for them Black team would probably end up saying "Screw you we're going out there" and head on out to go and find the lost soldier despite any given orders to the contrary.

As Nigel Hackett continued to make his way down to the hanger he remembered the one time that lieutenant Fletcher had been shot down and gone MIA for a couple of days during his one of his earlier missions with the Black Skulls and how medical officer Carmen Leone who had already formed an older sister like bond with the boy had insisted on going with the rescue party in search for him.

And oddly enough despite all of the search parties that they had sent out to look for the young pilot the one who found him was Carmen of all people. Lord knew that the chew out that Nathan had received was heavy from his surrogate sister.

Once Hackett had reached the hanger he saw that everyone was already beginning to get suited up and ready to start looking for their friend. The very second that Cross noticed Hackett he immediately stood at attention while giving a salute.

"Captain on the deck!" the commander called out so that everyone that bore a Black Skulls insignia that was working in the hanger could hear. The other members of the Skulls immediately dropped whatever it was that they were doing and quickly snapped at attention.

"At ease men, at ease" the captain ordered to which most of the Black Skull stopped and then got back to work on whatever it was that they were doing but Cross immediately walked up to the captain and asked the question that was on everyone's minds "Captain what are our orders regarding the missing pilot?" he asked before Li piped up

"Yeah sir, we're all hanging on the edges of our seats what are our orders?" she asked while gesturing to Kira and Flay who were obviously doing their best to remain calm and focused but anyone who knew the both of them could easily tell that they were concerned over their friend's wellbeing.

"Captain Ramius has given us permission to commence a search for Cagalli we have twenty four hours to locate her and bring her back before we continue on course for Alaska so I highly recommend that you get out there as soon as possible" Hackett suggested. Black team as well as the other pilots immediately got work and began to get ready to go out on a search and rescue op.

* * *

><p>-Deserted Island-<p>

* * *

><p>When the Skygrasper landed Cagalli had let out a sigh of relief that she was unharmed aside from just a couple of scrapes and bruises. It was quite a miracle, falling almost two thousand feet in the air and managing to land on the beach of some unknown and most likely uninhabited island. Cagalli figured that either must have had either an extraordinary amount of luck or an angel was watching over her for get out of that situation in one piece.<p>

Either way she was immensely thankful for surviving that crash landing. Cagalli activated the manual release mechanism for the Skygrasper's cockpit and the machine slowly opened allowing her to exit the mobile armor. She stretched her limbs a little before she wandered inland hoping that the place that she found herself on was inhabited by people who would hopefully have some kind of communication unit that would allow her to contact the Archangel.

'_Ha, and maybe I'll suddenly just sprout wings and fly back to the Archangel too'_ she thought bitterly knowing that while her Skygrasper had been crashing she hadn't see any real indicator that the place would be inhabited but she still wasn't willing to completely give up hope on that. After all Cagalli had been much more concerned with landing the crashing Skygrasper safely rather than taking in the sights.

If this place didn't have a way to call the Archangel she was pretty much screwed as the communications systems had been seriously damaged in the crash. To make matters worse Cagalli didn't even have the first idea on how to fix them. Cagalli began to wander into the nearby jungle hoping that she would find something, _anything_ that would help her get off this island and back to the Archangel.

The jungle itself was very thick with vast amounts of dense foliage and as Cagalli slowly made her way through the various branches and plants walking ahead towards what appeared to be a clearing. Good maybe now she could find something there that could help her get off the island and back to the Archangel. Once she finished clearing the foliage and made it into the clearing which happened to be nearby a small cliff that overlooked the ocean.

However that wasn't what caught her attention. What did was the fact that the Aegis was in a crouching position just a few hundred yards away from where she was currently standing. Cagalli saw that the phase shift armor wasn't activated due to the fact that it was a dull grey in color so it was highly unlikely that anyone was piloting it at the moment.

Cagalli pulled out the sidearm that she had been given a while back while she was still in the African desert, an Atlantic Federation standard issue nine millimeter pistol and flipped off the safety as she darted her head back and forth The pilot was probably still lurking around somewhere nearby and she didn't want to be caught unprepared.

Cagalli managed to walk a couple of feet before hearing the sound of boots stepping on dirt from directly behind her. She turned with almost lightening fast speed and fired off a round from her pistol. The bullet impacted the enemy pilot's machine pistol causing it to fly right out of his hands and onto the ground several feet away.

Before Cagalli could adjust her aim and fire off another round, the ZAFT pilot dove behind a nearby formation which provided more than adequate protection against the gun toting young woman. Cagalli kept her weapon's sights trained on area that she now presumed where the enemy pilot was hiding behind. She was about to order the guy to come out with his hands up when she saw something fly out to the right of where the guy was hiding.

Acting purely on both instinct as well as adrenaline Cagalli fired off two shots from her nine millimeter at the object. Both bullets impacted the thing which sent it to the ground.

Once it was on the ground Cagalli saw that thing she had just fired at was nothing more than a simple tin cup that currently had two bullet holes in it. _'A cup?'_ she thought, that certainly wasn't what she had been expecting. She then heard the sound of boots kicking up dirt and looked towards the direction of the sound and saw that the ZAFT pilot had climbed the rock he had been hiding behind just a few moments prior and tackled Cagalli.

The girl attempted to bring her pistol up but was too late as the enemy pilot had already tackled her to the ground and quickly wrestled Cagalli's pistol right out of her hands and tossed it aside before pulling out his combat knife. Cagalli saw this and closed her eyes waiting for the boy to start stabbing her to death.

However the blows never came and Cagalli could also make out the guy saying something about her being a girl and from his tone it sounded as though he was surprised by that little piece of information. Cagalli's eyes narrowed almost angrily at that little comment. First it had been Kira and now it was this asshole?

Yes I'm a girl you stupid jackass!" she yelled her frustration now at its breaking point "What the hell is it with you men?" she seethed, this was at the second time that some guy had mistaken her gender and it was starting to get frigging ridiculous.

However the enemy pilot didn't answer her question and instead proceeded to bind her hands together with some makeshift rope that had been created from some tree vines that more than likely originated from the island's small jungle. Cagalli just was just lying there on her stomach on the dirt watching as the ZAFT pilot took her pistol and walk over to a small nearby cliff that was only a couple of feet high before he proceeded to throw it into the ocean's water with all of his strength while throwing the clip in a different direction.

Cagalli sighed, there was no way she could get her weapon back now, since she sure as hell wasn't willing to try and look for it in four feet deep water with both her legs _and_ arms tied behind her back. With that small task done he then walked over to a small backpack that was just laying near the edge of the cliffs.

"So just who are you anyways?" the pilot asked before elaborating further "I mean you certainly don't look like an Atlantic Federation pilot wearing that kind of gear and you don't carry any sort of an ID tag either" Athrun said while he began to speculate about her identity.

'_Maybe she's a member of the Black Skulls?'_ Athrun wondered to himself but he quickly shot down that idea seeing as she wasn't even wearing one of their flight uniforms and she couldn't be part of the Atlantic Federation or Eurasian military for the same reasons. A freelance mercenary maybe, it was probably one of the more likely scenarios but she didn't have the same kind of attitude as most of the mercenaries that he had encountered during his career as a pilot.

Athrun continued to think about what kind of group that she belonged to when he realized something and mentally kicked himself fro not remembering this earlier. He had seen that mobile armor opening fire on his transport just a few minutes earlier and seeing as how it was damaged the pilot must have made an improvised landing on this island just a little while ago.

"Wait a second. You're the one who shot down our transport aren't you?" he asked accusingly. The girl lying down in front of him then rolled her eyes at him exasperatedly despite the situation that she had found herself in "Did it seriously take you that long to figure out?" she asked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

As Cagalli continued to just lie down on her stomach still fiddling with her restraints although now it was more out of boredom than an actual escape attempt. Cagalli quickly lost interest in trying to fiddle with her restraints she gave the pilot as well as the stolen Gundam that was only a few hundred yards away from him a good long look. It was then that she suddenly remembered something important.

"Wait a second, you're one of the bastards who helped destroy Heliopolis, aren't you?" she demanded her anger rising. However the enemy pilot didn't respond to her question and Cagalli took his silence as a confirmation that he was indeed one of the ZAFT soldiers that had taken part in the attack on the neutral space colony.

* * *

><p>-Archangel-<p>

* * *

><p>Everyone had finished loading up their equipment and weapons in case they ran into more ZAFT soldiers and were now all moving towards the catapult "Alright people listen up, as you all know we have a lost soldier out there and we have a maximum of twenty four hours to find her and bring her back to the Archangel" Cross explained as his AC stepped onto the launching mechanism and was soon catapulted out of the Archangel and into the vast ocean.<p>

"There's no doubt in my mind that she has already activated the Skygrasper's distress call mechanism but due to all of the N-Jammers in the area we won't get any sort of a fix on her location until we're very close by so everyone keep one eye on your radar and your ears open for anything that resembles a radio transmission however broken up they may be" he ordered before everyone went to their assigned search sectors.

The plan was to split up in to groups of two so that if anyone were to run into any trouble with ZAFT forces they would at least have some backup rather than none at all. Currently Kira and Li were headed north while the others all searched in different directions.

Kira and Li had continued to search their assigned sector for what felt like thirty or forty minutes. All the while the young Coordinator would periodically check the Strike's radar and had already set the commutations equipment to pick up on anything that would remotely resemble something like a distress call and continued to search for a while when he heard Li's voice over the communications unit.

"So Kira tell me, how far have you and Flay gotten in your relationship?" she asked. Normally Li would be focusing on the mission especially since they were on a search and rescue op which normally required the utmost attention but she couldn't really help wondering about a certain pet project of hers. Besides she set her systems to inform her of any sort of a distress signal was detected by her communications system.

Kira blushed at that as he did his best to try and come up with an appropriate answer to the woman's question while he wondered if now was really the best of times to be talking about that sort of thing.

"We, uh…well we-" he started trying clumsily to say something but all he could manage to get out was a stutter at best. Not really able to adequately answer he quickly tried to change the subject.

"Is now really the best time?" he asked as he attempted to adopt a more serious tone "I mean we're looking for Cagalli right now and she could be hurt and in need of help!" he exclaimed but was still blushing heavily before he heard a sigh on the other end of the radio which indicated that Li was most likely unsatisfied with his answer but she was at least willing to wait until after the rescue mission was completed.

Li sighed almost in frustration, she really wanted to know how far along those two had gone. After all it was pretty obvious (to her anyway) that they had gotten to first base, maybe second at the most.

"Okay fine listen kiddo, I'm going to go and check sectors twelve through fourteen maybe she managed to land on one of the islands in that area and as for earlier I only asked because I know that Cagalli's doing just fine and is probably just dying of boredom right now while she waits for us to pick her up" she explained before engaging the Fury's thrusters and heading off in that particular direction.

As Kira continued to search the area he found that he quickly went into a three step pattern, first he'd check the sensors, when that came up empty he would check for any sort of a distress signal on the communications unit and then visually check for anything that would remotely appear to be a crash site.

This process repeated itself for what felt like an eternity and as he went through the process for the umpteenth time Kira wondered how the blonde haired girl was doing at the moment.

As he continued to search Kira became more and more worried that Cagalli may have died when she crashed her Skygrasper. The made Kira try desperately to reassure himself that Li was right and that Cagalli was hopefully just standing on the shore of some nearby island waiting there for them. As he continued his sweep of his current patrol sector he noticed that dark clouds were beginning to fill the skies and it he quickly surmised that a storm was on its way in. this search was going to get a lot tougher than he had first anticipated.

* * *

><p>-Deserted Island-<p>

* * *

><p>Cagalli and her sort-of captor who had just introduced himself as Athrun were currently sitting down in a cave since it was one of the few of the drier spots on the island since the storm had already arrived at the island that they were stranded on. Cagalli was clad in only her underwear and a military blanket as most of her clothing had been completely drenched when it had started pouring down rain and Athrun had proceeded to untie her hands and legs shortly after she almost drowned when she fell in two or three feet deep water.<p>

Now Cagalli was situated right across from Athrun and in between the two of them was a small fire providing them with some extra warmth. Athrun had continued to try and contact any other ZAFT forces in the area for nearly and hour, but all of his attempts to reach someone from ZAFT had filled his communicator with nothing but white noise thanks to a large amount of N-Jammer interference.

After Athrun got back from his latest attempt at attempting to contact his comrades and sat down on a large rock that was nearby the fire. Athrun looked almost completely lost in thought and Cagalli wondered just what it was that the boy was thinking about.

Although the guy continued to try and play the act of a professional well disciplined soldier Cagalli could easily tell that he was just trying to put on a tough face and actually seemed like a nice guy at heart or at least that was the effect that he was having on her. Eventually Cagalli got tired of the near awkward silence and then tried to strike up a conversation with the guy.

"So why haven't you tied back me up yet?" she asked noticing that it had been well over an hour since he had untied the girl before she elaborated further "I mean if I just waited until after you went to sleep and went for your gun our positions could be easily reversed"

Athrun just shrugged almost nonchalantly as though he wasn't really taking her all that seriously. If there was one thing that Cagalli hated it was not being taken seriously by what she had assumed to be was her gender however his next sentence stopped her from completely overreacting.

"My gun was seriously damaged when you managed to shoot it right out of my hand, it won't even fire now so I'm not really particularly worried about that and you don't really seem the type that would try and strangle me to death in my sleep" he explained.

The two sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity before Cagalli spoke up once again, this time she wanted an answer for what had happened at Heliopolis "You never did answer my question earlier"

Athrun sighed "Heliopolis" he murmured while he looked up a the cave's ceiling as he thought of the colony that he helped destroy. Sure there were only a handful of civilian casualties in the battle but it still hurt that he had help destroy an entire colony especially when his mother had been lost back on Junius Seven

"When I think back to that day I never dreamed that I'd actually take part in something like that" he said before he continued.

"But those Earth Forces mobile suits were being built by Morgenroete which if I'm not mistaken is an arms company that is based in Orb, we were supposed to just acquire those mobile suits and leave, that was it" Athrun explained while a conflicted look appeared on his face as he stared at the flames that were coming from the fire.

On one hand they were trying to remove a credible threat to the PLANTs but on the other they were still attacking something that was still technically considered neutral, not to mention that there were still civilians there. Cagalli however just scowled at his explanation or rather excuse.

"But that's not what happened, the fact of the matter is that you and your buddies destroyed an entire colony" she said angrily.

Athrun lifted his head up and looked Cagalli dead in the eye and said "It's also a fact that Orb had declared itself neutral and then just turned around and decided to build those things back at Heliopolis for the Atlantic Federation and its allies. We were acting the defense of the PLANTs, ZAFT couldn't have just turned a blind eye to the development of those things!" he exclaimed which caused Cagalli to raise her voice as well.

"Well maybe if ZAFT hadn't decided to go and launch N-Jammers all over the planet, then maybe Earth Forces wouldn't have felt the need to make those weapons!" she retorted. Athrun looked away for a moment before dropping a huge bombshell on Cagalli.

"My mother was on Junius Seven" he said causing Cagalli's eyes to widen a fraction for a moment or two "She along with countless others were killed on that agricultural PLANT because the Atlantic Federation decided to go and use nuclear weapons on innocent people, we weren't just going to simply sit back and let them attack more of our homes so we struck back"

Although Cagalli agreed with some of what Athrun was saying she still remembered her friend Ahmed and how he had died in the desert. "A lot of my friends were killed all because of the attacks you and your buddies had started!" she all but yelled angrily at her sort of captor.

Athrun sensing that continuing this argument would serve no real purpose other than getting themselves completely riled up at each other at this point. Athrun was about to suggest that they just stop arguing and try to get some sleep when Cagalli looked down before letting out a dry, humorless chuckle.

"It's almost like a never ending cycle isn't it?" she asked.

The ZAFT pilot gave Cagalli a questioning glance and asked "What do you mean?" Cagalli looked up with sad eyes and elaborated

"This whole war, it's just an endless cycle, one side attacks, some innocent people get caught in the crossfire and the other side vows revenge and strikes back this time making the enemy bleed even more than they did and it just continues on forever. The only way that a war like this will end before both sides are exterminated is if someone finally says enough is enough and manages to stop the fighting" she explained.

Athrun was a little surprised that the blonde haired spitfire had said something like that, in the short time that he had known her Athrun didn't really figure Cagalli would say something like that.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Kira's Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Shortly after sunset which was only a couple of hours ago commander Mu had ordered that the search be called off until tomorrow morning. However Kira had made a small protest to that order saying that they still needed to keep looking for their missing friend.<p>

Mu then made it very clear to everyone in the search party that it would be very difficult to try and locate Cagalli in the dark even if she was using signal flares and they all needed their rest and he promised all of them that they would continue the search first thing in the morning. Having quickly realized Mu's logic Kira reluctantly backed off and returned to the Archangel along with the others as ordered.

While Kira was still in the hanger the young Coordinator could tell that some of the other members of Black team would've liked nothing more than to go back out into the field to continue to search for their friend. However they were all very tired and were in need of some rest.

Currently Kira was laying down on one of the two beds that were part of his and Flay's shared quarters. Despite being tired from both the battle as well as the ensuing search for Cagalli he still wasn't able to manage to close his eyes. Instead Kira just continued to look up at the ceiling for a while almost oblivious to the outside as he wondered what he had done wrong during that last battle.

He replayed every action that he had taken during combat and wondered if he would have been able to prevent Cagalli from going MIA. Each and every time that Kira replayed those events in his mind and came up with a large number of different scenarios on what might have happened. The more he thought about it the more that Kira realized that there wasn't much, if anything that he could have done to prevent what had happened earlier that day.

The thought that he couldn't prevent such things from happening left a very bitter taste in Kira's mouth.

Kira closed his eyes for a while and tried to get some actual sleep which was difficult considering that every time he closed his eyes he still thought about what happened. Then Kira felt a hand come over the left side of his chest which made the young Coordinator open his eyes and look over to where the arm had come from and saw Flay laying there next to him, sleeping peacefully.

Kira smiled and looked at his girlfriend for a little bit before gently pulling her a little closer to him which gave him a little bit more comfort and closed his eyes once again, this time he quickly fell into the realm of sleep.

* * *

><p>-Atlantic Federation Capital, Washington DC, Muruta Azrael's Office-<p>

* * *

><p>'<em>It's just a matter of time'<em> thought Azrael as he looked over the recent reports regarding Eurasian and Atlantic Federation troop movements as well as rereading a message that had been transferred to him from an unknown source. The message had been sent directly through to his personal computer which a large number of his personal security agents had repeatedly told him on numerous occasions was completely hack proof.

Azrael quickly made mental note to himself to have have those security agents immediately reassigned to a small, remote outpost located out in the middle of nowhere.

The message itself was filled with several battle plans signed off by PLANTs defense chairman Patrick Zala that contained a number of details regarding ZAFT's military operation that was called operation Spitbreak which had up until just recently been assumed to be an assault on Panama in order for ZAFT to take control of the Mass Driver that had been created there.

It would seem that in reality however it turned out that the real target of operation Spitbreak was in fact JOSH-A, Alaska.

At first Azrael had his doubts about the message and his first thought was that the message was an almost clumsy attempt at spreading misinformation. But rather than take the risk that the message was false and continue going along with his current battle plans he had several techs check the message's credibility it soon proved to be authentic enemy battle plans.

Rather than share this new information with the Eurasian forces however, Azrael instead ordered his subordinates that were absolute in their loyalty to both him transfer all of the Atlantic Federation forces that were still currently stationed there out of Alaska and into Panama's main garrison forces for "defensive purposes". Now all the only military forces that still remained at JOSH-A were a few battalions of Eurasian soldiers and sailors.

Of course this was only phase one of his little plan, the second phase would occur during the battle for JOSH-A and would involve the noble sacrifices of every Eurasian soldier stationed there.

True it was a terrible and tragic sacrifice but it was one that would allow him to take complete control over the Earth Forces and push everyone towards Azrael and the Blue Cosmos' greatest goal: The complete and utter extermination of every last one of those filthy Coordinators that either lived in the PLANTs and on Earth.

Azrael would soon create a truly Blue and Pure world that was completely free of those disgusting space monsters that were slowly but surely corrupting the purity of both humanity and Earth itself.

Yes it was only a matter of time.

* * *

><p>-Deserted Island-<p>

* * *

><p>The very instant that the sun had finished rising from the horizon Athrun had gotten up from his place of rest in the cave and began to make his way over to the Aegis. As Athrun walked towards the Gundam he continued to hope that by now Carpentaria base had would have sent out a rescue team to look for him. The storm from last night would definitely have had a delaying effect on any kind of search and rescue team and they most likely hadn't been deployed until now.<p>

Not wasting anymore time Athrun climbed into the cockpit of the Aegis and activated its primary systems and proceeded to reroute some of the mobile suit's power supplies into the communications unit. The second that he saw the signal had been boosted Athrun patched into a secure ZAFT channel before he began broadcasting.

"This is Athrun Zala of the Le Creuset team I'm currently stranded on a deserted island if there is anyone out there that's listening to this transmission please respond" he said all the while he prayed to god that someone would hear his calls for assistance. Athrun repeated the message for another five or six minutes before _finally_ he heard a response to his transmission.

"Athrun…that you?" asked a voice that was almost completely garbled by static. Silently thanking god that someone had finally managed to pick up on his transmission Athrun took the opportunity to get the hell out of there "Yeah it's me can you lock onto this location?" he asked his knowing that he'd finally be able to get off that damned island.

When Nichol responded it seemed that the transmission had managed to clear up a bit more and wasn't nearly consumed in white noise "Yes we have your current position just stay where you area and we'll be there in a few minutes" he assured.

"Roger that" Athrun replied while he began to turn on some of the Aegis' other systems and noticed that there was also something showing up on his thermal detection unit that matched the signature of the fighter that Cagalli had been piloting. Athrun also noticed that there was one more signature, and they matched the thermal signature of a mobile suit.

Knowing that there was little time he exited the cockpit and ran back to the cave that the two had been using for shelter in order to tell Cagalli the news.

By the time he got back to the shelter he saw that Cagalli was already up and about which was good aside from one small problem. She still didn't have her clothes on since they had to be dried overnight. The second that Cagalli noticed that he was looking right at her, she all but screamed at him to go away. Athrun immediately went to cover his eyes "Oh I'm sorry! I swear to god that I didn't know that you were still undressed!" he said apologizing profusely.

Cagalli had half a mind to slap the guy to punish him for his unintended peeping but since it was an accident she decided to let it slide, this time anyway. Once she finished putting her clothes back on she saw that Athrun was still covering his eyes "It's okay you can look now" she said causing Athrun to slowly remove the hand that he had up in front of his eyes.

After Athrun lowered his hand Cagalli looked at him with a questioning gaze "So what's going on?" she asked "I just got a transmission from a ZAFT rescue team that should be here in a few minutes time, but there was also what looked like a rescue team from your ship on the thermal detector. And currently their heading towards the eastern beach where you went down so I would suggest you head there if you still want to get off of this island" Athrun suggested.

"Thanks Athrun" Cagalli said before she ran back towards the beach while Athrun turned around and ran as quickly as he possibly could back towards the Aegis. He had to get the Gundam out of anyone's sight before the enemy search and rescue teams got there.

* * *

><p>Kira and Mu were combing as many islands as they could hoping that they would soon come across Cagalli before long. As they continued to search Kira started to pick something up on the communication channels. It looked almost like a distress beacon. "Hey commander I found something on the com channels" the young Coordinator stated not taking his eyes off of the communications system while he spoke.<p>

"Yeah I heard it too, the signal seems to be originating from that island over at point A-bravo" Mu said as he pulled the joystick to the right a little sending him flying towards the source of the signal while Kira followed close behind.

They began to reach the eastern shore of the island and much to both Mu and Kira's relief Cagalli was standing right next to her Skygrasper which had landed on the beach mostly intact aside form some easily reparable damage to the machine's hull from what they were able to see. Cagalli was waving a pair of emergency flares over her head so that the rescue team would be able to spot her.

The Strike landed almost a hundred meters away form where Cagalli was standing and the mobile suit began to slowly walk towards her. Once it was twenty meters away the massive machine kneeled down and the cockpit opened up while the Strike's left hand lowered to the ground palm open offering Cagalli a ride back to the Archangel.

Without hesitation Cagalli stepped onto the Gundam's hand and the hand quickly raised itself to the cockpit of the Strike where Cagalli got on without any kind of hesitation while the other hand gently grabbed the Skygrasper before they began to head back to the Archangel never realizing that the Aegis was only a few hundred meters away from where they were..

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p> 


	21. Welcome to The Country of Peace

Armored Seed

Chapter 21

Welcome to The Country of Peace

A/N: if you're going to review then for the love of god could you **PLEASE** make your review longer than just one measly little sentence.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, near the Indian ocean-<p>

* * *

><p>Only a couple of days had passed since Cagalli had been rescued from that deserted island that she had found herself stranded on for almost eighteen hours and already the Archangel was under attack by ZAFT forces once again which ended up forcing the ship go off of their intended course. However this time it wasn't just of a series of clumsy and ill planned strikes by a bumbling imbecile of a commander who had been hoping to use overwhelming numbers to his advantage.<p>

Instead this attack was a well thought out and well coordinated and executed strategy that was being carried out by all four of the stolen Gundams as well as three of the four Hydra pilots that were acting as close support for the Gundams.

The only member of the Hydras that had been left out of the battle was Katrina and her AC the Stinger. The reason for this was that her armored core performed very poorly at best in aquatic environments. However the other three Raven pilots were still brought into the mission in order to help even up their odds against the Legged Ship.

One of the Archangel's engines had taken a hit by one of the stolen Gundams and there was a plume of black smoke that was trailing from the damaged engine. Despite the damage being taken, the Archangel was still putting up one hell of a fight, the ship continued to keep the stolen Gundams under suppressing fire as best it could with the Valiant class beam cannons as well as the Archangel's aft missile launchers and CIWS'.

Once Yzak got into combat the first thing he decided to go after was the Strike however the Lucifer continued to come after him and if the pilot's voice on the radio was anything to go by, he wasn't giving up until Yzak was dead. Weapons discharge that came form the Lucifer's beam rifle continued to streak into the air and at the Duel or rather the Guul atmospheric flight unit that it was using.

If the Guul took enough damage and went down into the water then Yzak would become little more than a sitting duck for the enemy and even if he wasn't blown out of the sky if the water depth was deep enough so that his mobile suit would be completely crushed with him inside of it.

"Get over here you son of a bitch and let me gut you like a god damned pig!" the Lucifer's pilot roared through the communications system while he switched targets from the atmospheric flight system to the mobile suit that was perched on top of it. Due to Yzak's quick maneuvering most of the beams missed their marks, however one of the energy projectiles hit the Duel's shoulder mounted missile pod severing it from the mobile suit's body.

Yzak growled and continued to try and evade the Lucifer's attacks while opening fire with his own beam rifle as well as the shoulder mounted rail gun. "Dearka what the hell are you waiting for hit that ship now!" he yelled in frustration before the Duel's assault shroud took another direct hit from the enemy armored core's beam rifle.

Dearka however was under heavy fire from Mu's Skygrasper which prevented him from lining up a decent shot at the Archangel. Although the Buster was more powerful than the Skygrasper the pilot was almost unable to fire off a decent shot because of the way that the pilot of the mobile armor used his machine's superior agility to his advantage. That and coupled with several blasts from the Skygrasper's attached Agni cannon made a very dangerous combination to whoever it was that the pilot was fighting against, and in this case that was Dearka.

However the Buster's pilot soon received help in a very unlikely form, the Chem-Dog whose pilot was practically screaming bloody murder (literally) into the communications system "NOW I SHALL EXPERIENCE THE BLISS OF WAR! DIE! DIE! DIE! EVERYONE'S GONNA FUCKING DIE!" Harold shrieked maniacally as he fired off rounds from his shotgun and submachine gun almost at random. Thankfully for both sides of the fighting the near random spray of bullets didn't hit anything that belonged to Harold's allies or even anything that belonged to the Legged Ship or it's defenders.

Not wanting to try and look an obviously psychotic gift horse in the mouth Dearka did his best to ignore the mad ravings of that trigger happy lunatic and quickly turned his attention back to the Archangel and saw that the Igelstellungs were now focusing on him rather than the other Hydras.

Although the Legged Ship's CIWS' wouldn't do much damage at all to him, the constant impacts from those weapons would make it annoyingly difficult to aim and hit any of his intended targets. Not to mention that if he was hit enough times his PS armor would drain to the point that it would deactivate which would put him in an even worse situation than he was already in.

The constant Igelstellung barrage from the Legged Ship forced Dearka to fall back a little to try and get a little further out of their limited range and as he did so he saw that several members of the Black Skulls as well as the Strike had broken off from the dogfight with the Hydras and were now coming to engage him and the other stolen Gundams.

The second that the Raven pilots attempted this Dearka could hear Athrun's voice over the com channels "Nichol break off and engage the enemy from the left, Dearka focus your attacks on the Legged Ship as much as you can!" he ordered. The two soldiers immediately did as they had been instructed and Athrun noticed that once Nichol broke off from the group he was immediately assailed by the Strike while Yzak was still fighting with the Lucifer and it was clear that he was losing, badly.

"Damn it!" Yzak swore in frustration. When Yzak first entered combat his first target naturally was the Strike since it's pilot was the one responsible for defeating him several times. But before the hotheaded pilot could even get close to the Strike that same armored core that he had fought with in the desert showed up and even now continued to fire away at the Duel.

Despite Yzak's attempts to shoot down the enemy pilot or at least disengage him had proven to be a completely fruitless endeavor. That guy was going to keep coming after him until one of them was dead.

The Lucifer's shoulder mounted missile launchers opened fire which sent several mid range missiles directly at the Duel. The Duel's pilot attempted to evade but was only partially successful. Several of the missiles rocked the Duel's hull but due to the phase shift armor as well as the assault shroud the mobile suit had sustained zero damage.

Yzak's Guul however was another story, the mid range missiles had caused the atmospheric flight unit to take on an excessive amount of punishment, there was smoke coming from several spots on the apparatus and it was astounding to say the least that the atmospheric flight unit was even able to keep the Duel up in the air with its assault shroud still in place.

The Guul then exploded after the Lucifer fired a shot from its beam rifle. The directed energy discharge shot straight through the center of the Guul which caused the machine to explode. Thanks to the PS armor Yzak's Gundam came out completely unscathed but the sheer weight of the assault shroud caused it to fall into the ocean.

The Duel hit the ocean and began to sink beneath the waves. Under normal circumstances Nathan would chase after that murderer and put him down personally but he had no intention of being entombed by the ocean's depths. Besides being literally crushed to death inside of someone's own cockpit was a fitting death for scum like him.

Nichol meanwhile was opening fire on the Strike with its which had flown off of the Archangel and fired off all three of the Blitz's lancer darts in an attempt to try and throw his enemy off balance. However this failed to work as the Strike easily dodged them. In his panicked state Nichol fired the shield mounted beam rifle with reckless abandon. None of the shots from the energy projectiles hit however and the Blitz was soon knocked right off of the Guul and was sent plummeting down towards the ocean.

Athrun watched that happen and soon broke off his attack and began to go and try and stop Nichol from hitting the ocean. He wasn't able to get far when the Blitz hit the water and soon after sank beneath the waves. Seeing as how there was nothing he could do for his friend Athrun turned his attention towards the Strike and began to strafe around the opposing mobile suit while firing his beam rifle.

While the two former friends continued to pound away at one another the Hydras and the Black Skulls continued to go at one another. Harold had just started to increase the dosage level that he had been getting from his flight suit's injectors and once he felt the combat drugs flow into his system, Harold's face adopted an even more psychotic look than was normal for him.

Over the last couple of days Harold had already started to increase the dosage of the combat stimulant that he took every single day which showed that the madman's body had already began to gain a tolerance for the drug and in this case it made it much more dangerous to be around him whether or not he was a friend or a foe.

Harold looked for the closest target and he happened to find the Beta that was currently trying to fight off the Buster which had recently shifted its targets from the Archangel to that of its defenders. "Out of the way you blonde haired bitch that one is mine!" Harold yelled into the communications channel.

It took less than half a second for Dearka to realize who it was that the lunatic was referring to. Quickly and without any response Dearka maneuvered the Buster as far away from the Beta as he possibly while the Chem-Dog charged in quickly and began to relentless fire at the Beta while its pilot did her best to try and gain as much distance from the Chem-Dog as she could.

However this was near futile seeing as once Harold had a target in mind he would pursue it like a hungry lion after a wounded gazelle.

As Harold went after his latest victim commander Lockhart watched the maniac go after that one target and was exasperated with Harold's antics. As of late Harold had been increasing the dosage of combat stims that he always took while on and off duty and had begun to get more and more unstable as time went on.

If this continued Lockhart would more than likely be forced to terminate that subordinate. Of course the temptation to kill that man was always there but lately it had begun to have little friendly fire incident, especially after what had happened yesterday.

From what Lockhart had been told by the Carpentaria base's commander, Harold had apparently picked a fight with two security guards while they were making their rounds throughout the base. Harold threw several racial insults at them but the guards simply ignored the drug addicted psycho to the best of their ability.

When Harold didn't get the response that he had wanted from them he injected a large dose of combat stimulant into his body before he resorted to more physical means of starting a fight with the security guards and he then threw a punch at one of them and then for lack of better terms, all hell broke loose.

Judging by the security camera footage it took nearly seven guards not including the ones that he had fought with to finally restrain Harold and send him to the base's brig. The guards that he had originally picked a fight with were still in the medical bay with several broken bones and one doctor had said that the poor man would probably be eating the majority of his food through a straw for the next several months at the very earliest.

At first the base commander of Carpentaria wanted to put Harold on a military tribunal but Lockhart had somehow managed to convince/bribe the base's commander into letting Harold get off without much of a punishment as well as to keep the incident off of the base's official records.

Lockhart didn't do this for Harold of course but seeing as one of his squad mates wouldn't be able to accompany them on their newest mission because that the Stinger's weight level would prevent Katrina from being effective in the field which meant that she would have to sit the entire mission out. Besides the last thing that commander Lockhart wanted or needed at the moment was any sort of a record of one of his men attacking the subordinates of their current employers.

And it was with no small amount of reluctance Lockhart had allowed Harold to come with them on the mission since they needed all of the soldiers that they could get at the moment. Besides that maniac would make a perfect distraction and even if he survived Harold could still be used as a meat shield for a few more missions before he was disposed of but it was unlikely that Lockhart and Faulkner would have to do something like that, especially given how much of a reckless berserker that Harold was acting.

It was as though the man was in another world. Whenever someone attempted to open up communications with him to tell him to calm the fuck down they just received the same exact thing. Random death cries and insane demands for more blood and carnage. It was blatantly obvious that if by some miracle that Harold did manage to survive this mission then he would have to be terminated both figuratively and literally. The man was becoming far too much of a hindrance to be of any practical value to the Hydras.

* * *

><p>Flay was practically in a panic. She had mostly been able to hold her own against the Buster but the madman that she was up against now was a lot more difficult to try and fight off. The crazed pilot just kept coming at her while firing his weapons with reckless abandon not even bothering to try and aim which made the majority of his weapons' shots completely miss the intended target. However Flay was far to busy trying to evade her opponent's strikes that she wasn't able to even attempt a counter attack against the Chem-Dog.<p>

Eventually the autoloaders on the Chem-Dog's weapons began to cycle through the ammunition. Seizing the opportunity that was just given to her, Flay opened fire almost blindly with the Beta's semi auto rifle sending several shots at the Chem-Dog but most of her rounds either missed or impacted the machine's non-vital areas such as the shoulders or certain parts of its legs.

These attacks did little more than enrage the enemy pilot who's suit injectors sent another heavy dose of combat stims into his system. The doses that Harold was taking ere now bordering on a large overdose. A large overdose of combat stimulants can cause bouts of insanity, seizures, psychosis and eventually death if it was large enough.

However it seemed that Harold was mostly unbothered by such trivial things and injected more and more of the drug into his veins before opening fire once again at the Beta. The opposing pilot wouldn't last long now. There was extensive damage to the Beta's body.

Bullet holes filled parts of the chest area as well as some of the arms and legs but the head of the machine was mostly intact with only a few small pieces missing from it. Looking over his handiwork Harold gave a disturbing grin and aimed his shotgun directly at the Beta's Cockpit and started to let out a maniacal laugh.

Flay's eyes widened, the weapon controls weren't responding and it was difficult to use the Beta's thrusters to maneuver due to the damage that had been inflicted on the machine's systems.

Kira looked over at Flay and felt the world go slow around him. A seed spun and exploded. Kira's pupil's all but vanished while his iris' became enlarged slightly and the boy sped the Strike towards the Chem-Dog while he instinctively drew his Gundam's beam saber.

The next thing Flay knew was Kira screaming "Keep away from her!" while the enemy pilot letting out a scream of pure frustration and upon closer inspection of the armored core that had almost killed her, Flay saw that the right arm that had been holding the shotgun had been seared off to the elbow joint by a beam saber that was being wielded by the Strike. The enemy pilot screamed with rage that his fun had now been ruined by an outside force.

"Flay get out of here now!" Kira screamed into the communications unit. Flay quickly did as she was told and began to fly back for the Archangel's main hanger bay, seeing as the damage that the Beta had sustained would make her more of a hindrance than a help on the battlefield.

Letting out a sigh of relief that his girlfriend was now safe, Kira turned his attentions back to the one that came far too close to killing Flay. Kira heard the enemy pilot curse and scream about how Kira had managed to stop him from experiencing the full bliss of war, whatever that was and instead opened fire with his other weapon the SMG.

Since the SMG fired solid slug projectiles rather than directed energy the weapon failed to do any damage to the Strike and instead the bullets just ricocheted off of the Strike's armor. As Harold wasted his time trying to eliminate the Strike with his submachine gun the rest of the Hydras could easily tell by the maniacal screams and incoherent babble that the man had finally gone off the deep end and as such did absolutely nothing to help or stop him as they were worried that O'Connor's blood rage would cause him to attack them instead.

"DIE, DIE, DIIIIEEEE!" Harold screamed as more of the drug continued to flow into his veins making causing the madman's desire to spill more and more blood that came from anyone that he could find increase tenfold. By that point Harold was completely incoherent, there wasn't even the slightest possibility of Harold hearing anything outside of his own world.

Still being hit by SMG fire the Strike pulled out its beam saber and thrust it into the center of the machine before pulling it out upwards, completely bisecting the Chem-Dog. The radio signals coming from the Chem-Dog's communications systems ceased and became random bits of white noise rather than just an insane cacophony of cries and growls that demanded both violence and death.

Less than half a second later both halves of the Chem-Dog went up in a magnificent and fiery conflagration.

"One enemy confirmed KIA I repeat Kira scored one for the good guys!" Cross announced into the White Knight's communications system.

Despite the death of one of their comrades the two remaining Hydras that were part of the attack didn't really seem to care or even notice that one of their squad mates had just been killed. Instead they continued to fight as though one of their comrades hadn't just been killed only a few seconds earlier. In fact the two pilots felt a bit of relief that they wouldn't end up having to set up a hit on one of their men. Lord knew that if something like _that_ got out it wouldn't be good for their business opportunities.

The two sides continued to fight each other for a while before several new contacts appeared on the Archangel's radar, there was a whole fleet of navy ships as well as mobile armors all of which bore the symbol of Orb's Naval Defense Fleet. It would appear that their little battle had made them drift too close to Orb territory and the neutral nation's military had responded to the fighting that was going on so close to their borders.

Soon there was a transmission that came over all military and civilian frequencies no doubt from the commander of the fleet.

"Attention all ships this is admiral Matthias of the Orb Naval Defense Fleet, you are trespassing in Orb waters, leave now or you shall be forcibly evicted" the admiral stated calmly yet firmly over an open channel so that everyone would be able to get the message.

* * *

><p>-Archangel-<p>

* * *

><p>Once the fighting had started Cagalli had at first wanted to try and help fight off the attacking force but quikcly realized that she was unable to do so seeing as the second Skygrasper was still undergoing repairs. Like most of the Archangel's crew Cagalli knew for a fact that they were probably getting very close to Orb's borders as the battle had forced them to drift in that direction and Orb's navy would probably send out a naval fleet and order them to leave immediately or they would be attacked.<p>

Cagalli knew that their only real chance to get away from this battle and to a temporary port in the storm would be to head into Orb's borders. So she immediately went towards the bridge so that she would be able to try and negotiate (read: announce that her father was the chief representative of orb and demand that they be given temporary asylum) with whoever it was that Orb's sent out to meet them.

At first Kisaka tried his best to dissuade her from attempting anything rash, but soon saw that Cagalli would not be dissuaded and reluctantly allowed her onto the Archangel's bridge.

Almost the instant that Cagalli got onto the bridge her suspicions of them being way too close to Orb's borders were confirmed.

Not wanting to waste any time Cagalli ran over to the captain's chair where Murrue was sitting and said "Let me talk to them" she insisted. Seeing as how they would probably end up being sunk if they continued onwards given the amount of damage that they had been taking since the battle had started.

"Captain, please just let me talk to them!" Cagalli offered. Murrue immediately saw what it was that the girl intended on doing. Cagalli's father was a high ranking member in Orb's government if there was anyone that could convince the fleet out there to help the Archangel and its crew then it would have to be Cagalli.

"Alright Cagalli, go right ahead" the captain said before Cagalli put on a small communications headset and spoke into the mike.

"Attention Orb Fleet, this is Cagalli Yula Attha the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative do not open fire on us we-" Cagalli started but was cut off by the admiral.

"Look whoever you are, I'm really not in any mood for jokes and unless you have any conclusive evidence about your identity which I sincerely doubt I suggest that you follow our instructions and leave our waters immediately before we open fire!" admiral Matthias warned before the man disconnected the communications link.

"Well it certainly was worth a shot" muttered Hackett who was sorely tempted to take out his cigar and take a few drags from the cancer stick despite the no smoking rule on the bridge.

As the battle continued to rage onwards Mir got a transmission from Flay who was currently heading back to the Archangel's hanger. Once the transmission was over Mir turned to the captain "Captain Ramius, the Beta is heading back for the hanger, it appears to have a severe amount of damage but the pilot doesn't seem to be injured" Mir explained.

"Give ensign Allster clearance to land in the hanger immediately" Murrue ordered.

* * *

><p>For the past several minutes Dearka had been attempting to get a decent shot off at the Archangel but some of the defenders weren't making it easy on him. The near constant barrage from the Skygrasper's attached Agni cannon which was keeping him from getting off any decent shot at the Archangel. At least the rest of the Archangel's defenders were still busy dealing with the Black Skulls but that was small comfort seeing as they had already killed off one of the Hydras.<p>

Instinctively Dearka opened fire with the Buster's gun launcher and beam rifle at the Skygrasper. Each shot narrowly missed the intended target and also came perilously close to hitting the Orb ships that were nearby. Dearka let out a sigh of relief that none of the shots hit the Orb vessels, that was an international disaster just waiting to happen.

Athrun seemed to have noticed this and immediately opened up communications with his squad mate "Dearka be careful damn it! You'll end up hitting an Orb ship!" Athrun yelled before continuing "Try hitting the Archangel from the side!".

"Got it" Dearka responded calmly before doing as he had been ordered but still faced the same problems as earlier seeing as how he was still being attacked by the Skygrasper form earlier and it was still difficult to shoot back even though he didn't have to worry about hitting the neutral nation's ships.

However Dearka soon caught a break as one of the Hydras, the Reaver which if Dearka remembered correctly was Hauptman's AC as it was the only armored core among the Hydras that was considered lightweight, had broken off from attacking the ship and its other escorts and the pilot turned his attention towards the Skygrasper that had been preventing Dearka from lining up a decent shot at the Archangel.

Under normal circumstances Dearka would have thanked the mercenary pilot but now wasn't really the time for such things and instead he opted to open fire at two of the Archangel's engines but was stopped when a beam rifle discharge courtesy of Kira Yamato directly hit the Guul that the Buster was using and like the others before him the Guul exploded due to the damage that had been inflicted on it.

The Buster began to fall downwards toward the ocean but before he crashed into the ocean he managed to fire off a few shots with the gun launcher and beam rifle at the Archangel. Due to an extreme amount of luck, the Buster's shots had managed to hit the number one and two engines which forced the ship down close to the water.

* * *

><p>-Orb Naval Defense Fleet, Flagship-<p>

* * *

><p>Admiral Matthias could not believe what he had just heard. He was just about ready to give the order to open fire on the Archangel as well as the ZAFT forces for continuing to fight while they headed directly into Orb territory when he received a embedded transmission from Orb's Chief Representative, Lord Uzumi Attha himself.<p>

The man then confirmed that indeed his daughter was aboard that Atlantic Federation ship and gave the admiral a direct order that both he and his men were to go and take the Archangel to one of their naval bases at once and give the crew onboard asylum for the time being.

Not one to disobey orders, especially those that came from someone that was so high in rank in Orb's government he turned to the bridge's communications officer and spoke up.

"Com officer I need you to send a secure transmission to the Archangel be absolutely sure that their pursuers can't intercept it. I want tell them that we are going to grant them temporary asylum but we're going to have to try and make it look like we're engaging them in combat, am I understood?" the admiral ordered to his subordinate who looked a little puzzled by the order but he followed it nevertheless and sent began to send the embedded transmission to the Archangel just as he had been ordered to do.

* * *

><p>As Athrun continued to fight his best as he was able against the Legged Ship's defenders but despite the damage that they had inflicted on the Legged Ship they were slowly starting to lose the fight. Nichol, Dearka and Yzak had already gone down but thankfully they were all picked up by the submarine that had been loaned to Athrun before the ocean's deep depths could crush their mobile suits.<p>

Not only that but one of the Hydras had been killed off by Kira of all people. When the pilot of the Chem-Dog went after that one AC Kira just seemed to have lost it and without any kind of hesitation or anything, had killed O'Connor.

This wasn't looking good for them and when the Legged Ship started to head towards the Orb Naval fleet his first thought was to go after it but then saw that the fleet had already opened fire on the ship and a large number of mobile armors began to head towards him and the Hydras.

The squadron leader of the group opened up communications with them "Attention all other combatants in this area you are hereby ordered to withdraw from the area immediately or you will be treated as hostiles!" the squadron leader ordered.

"Commander Zala what are our orders?" asked Lockhart from over the communications link who was immensely glad that Harold was dead seeing as how that maniac would probably end up just shooting at the squadron that was out there. Attacking a neutral nation's military without being fired upon first was bad for any future business opportunities with said nation.

Athrun thought about it for a moment, it was obvious that they couldn't go after the Legged Ship, it would create an international incident between the PLANTs and Orb and they didn't need more of that kind of political tension with Orb at the moment. But if they didn't go after the Legged Ship then it might end up getting away but he figured that was kind of doubtful considering that Orb was already starting to shoot at it.

Athrun then made his decision they would fall back for now "All forces fall back immediately I repeat all forces fall back immediately" he ordered and the two Hydras did as they were told without hesitation or question since they saw the backlash that would occur if they attempted to continue to engage the ship in Orb waters.

Once they were sure that they were out of radar range Athrun signaled the command sub to surface and allow them to dock with the sub's hanger bay.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Hanger Bay-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira had just finished putting his mobile suit into the docking clamps in the hanger bay and was already on the ground floor of the hanger when he felt the floor shake a little beneath him. The young Coordinator then surmised that they had already started to dock with the underground shipyard that the Orb fleet had been leading them to.<p>

As Kira made his way towards the exit of the hanger he saw Flay standing a couple dozen yards from his current position and was still clad in her pilot suit and looked as though she was looking for someone or something.

Eventually Flay's eyes came upon his and with only a half second of hesitation she rushed over to him as though there was no tomorrow and enveloped him in a hug and then, by all witness accounts, had proceeded to ram her tongue down his throat. Although Kira was surprised for a moment he quickly melted into the lip lock and for a few moments they just stood there enjoying each other's touch.

However they were soon brought out of their reverie by a series of whistles and catcalls that came from another part of the hanger that was nearby and they both ended the kiss and looked over to where the sounds were originating from and saw Adam and Drake watching them with beer bottles in hand the two taking swigs from them once every couple of seconds.

"I told you that she'd French the guy right after the battle, you said she'd do it once they were alone, you owe me fifty" Drake proudly proclaimed while Adam begrudgingly got out his wallet and proceeded to hand his friend/drinking buddy the cash that he owed him. After the money had been exchanged between a rather irritated Li who had been watching the whole thing just walked up to the two of them and smacked them both on the back of the head.

Both Raven pilots turned and looked at their attacker who was currently giving them a furious look. To both pilots it appeared as though her eyes had turned into fireballs and her teeth to fangs that were being ground together in frustration, although it could have just been the alcohol that was now running through thier system but they couldn't be sure.

"They were both in the middle of a romantic moment you idiots, you both know how I enjoy watching the couples that I've helped to create interact with one another!" she hissed angrily as Kira and Flay both quickly made their way out of the hanger and were most likely going to go somewhere that was a little bit more, private than the spot that they were currently at.

As they left the hanger chief Murdoch looked over the damage that the Beta had sustained and groaned, this was not going to be an easy fix, not by a long shot. The damage to that machine was extensive at best.

The Beta's hull was riddled with bullets and Murdoch considered it a miracle that Flay had managed to come out of that battle completely unscathed. Most of the Beta's electronic components that allowed the armored core's to move around above the waist would probably have to be scrapped and replaced with new ones. But at least the AC's main power unit was left undamaged during the battle, thank god for that since the resulting explosion could have been disastrous.

Murdoch had half a mind to ask captain Hackett if they could just scrap the freaking thing since it would probably cost a lot less to replace the whole machine than it would to repair it. But until a decision had been made regarding its fate Murdoch and his fellow engineers would repair the Beta.

As the repairs on the armored core commenced Nathan was looking over his own AC as well, he saw that although it hadn't taken much in the way of damage aside from a small amount of damage to the machine's armor. However that small amount of damage could eventually become very devastating if a stray round was to punch straight through it.

The repairs would take a week at the earliest but Nathan began to assume that it might even take a little longer considering that most of the engineers aboard the ship were busy trying to fix up the Beta. Nathan then turned his thoughts away from such things and back to the battle that he had just fought in, although he saw the Duel go down into the ocean he couldn't help but feel as though the pilot was still alive. Sure it was a long shot to say the least but he hadn't been there to confirm the kill himself which meant that the enemy had to be treated as though he was still amongst the living.

Besides if the pilot of the Duel was still alive then he'd more than likely show up on their trip to Alaska considering that he and the rest of the stolen prototypes had been dogging them ever since Heliopolis.

As Nathan stood there looking up at the Lucifer his thoughts turned back to orphanage that he had grown up at, it wasn't all that far from here and it had been years since he had been back at the place that was once his home town and he considered that perhaps if they were given leave, then he would pay the place a visit sometime soon.

* * *

><p>Flay had pretty much dragged Kira back to the crew quarters onboard the Archangel where they would have better privacy for some of the more…intimate activities that were of their relationship. They hadn't gone <em>all the way<em> of course, they both unanimously agreed a few days earlier that it would be best if they waited for the right time seeing as they were both only sixteen years of age.

Although as their relationship continued from simply having lunch together to having a number make out sessions before they went to bed Flay did wish that the two of them could take that next step but if Kira wanted to wait for a while then so would she. At least it would make their first time that much more special or at leas that was what she had been hoping for.

As the couple continued to make their way back to Kira's quarters they held each other close and Flay leaned her head on Kira's shoulder with an affectionate smile. As they continued to make their way to Kira's quarters for a little "private time" they heard the sounds of high heels rapidly clacking their way down the metal floor of the ship. Both Flay and Kira turned around and saw a rather overweight woman making her way down the hall towards them.

The large woman stopped just a few feet in front of them "Excuse me but have either of you seen a blond haired girl named Cagalli Attha around here?" she asked with a hint of both annoyance and urgency in her voice. However it seemed that the annoyance wasn't being directed at Kira or Flay but the person that the large woman was trying to find.

"Uh, yeah she's a bit further down the hall on the room numbered two eighty four, why?" Kira asked curious as to what this woman wanted with Cagalli.

"Thank you, now if you'll both excuse me" the woman said before she continued to make her way towards the quarters that Kira and Flay had told her that Cagalli had been using. It wasn't long after that they heard yelling and sounds of a struggle "What's going on in there?" Kira wondered idly to himself. Flay however just shrugged not knowing either.

A few minutes later they both received their answer as Cagalli was pulled out of her room by the overweight woman the former of which was now wearing a formal dress and clearly didn't look very happy about it. Both Flay and Kira looked absolutely stunned by the fact that Cagalli was wearing now wearing a very formal looking dress. Many aboard the Archangel believed it to be completely impossible for her to wear anything that would resemble a skirt let alone some fancy dress.

Kira looked as though he was about to say something but Cagalli just gave him a look that promised death if he said the wrong thing so Kira promptly kept his mouth shut while Flay just looked with an expression of pure disbelief. Not one single time since meeting Cagalli had the redhead thought that she'd end up seeing Cagalli wearing something as nice as what she was currently wearing now.

After Cagalli left hearing distance Flay looked at her boyfriend with a puzzled look and asked what was on both of their minds "Was that Cagalli?" she asked her mind almost unable to process what it was that she had just seen.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT, Command Sub, Briefing Room-<p>

* * *

><p>"Do those bastards honestly expect us to believe this bullshit?" Yzak demanded angrily while he slammed his fist against the printed message that they had been sent only a few minutes earlier that had come from Orb's government that had informed them that the Archangel had been driven out of their territory.<p>

Just about everyone on that sub had a seriously difficult time believing that message seeing as how not only had Orb aided in the construction of the Legged Ship on one of their own colonies but also had constructed the Gundams for the Earth Forces as well. And then there was also the fact that the daughter of one of the most prominent political figures in Orb's government had just been confirmed to be on that ship. The fact that Orb was expecting them to believe these outright lies was just plain insulting.

"Maybe they expect us to believe it because we have a young commander" Dearka remarked with a smug grin on his face "Dearka!" Nichol exclaimed a little surprised that the blond haired pilot would be making smartass remarks at a time like this.

"I say we go in there and burn down everything until we find the Legged Ship's hiding place and wipe it from existence!" Yzak proclaimed. Athrun was about to try and explain to his thick headed comrade as to why such a foolish plan wouldn't work when commander Lockhart began to laugh almost condescendingly which in turn caused Yzak to turn and gave Lockhart an irritated look.

"Kid that has got to be the dumbest strategy that I have ever heard of in my entire life!" Lockhart said in between bouts of laughter. Before Yzak could rebuke Lockhart's jeers the man elaborated further.

"First off you're saying that we scour an entire nation with only a handful of mobile suits, armored cores and a sub and even though the majority of us have shown that we can handle ourselves under pressure, even we can't stand up against the combined might of an entire nation. And second the Red Eyed Devil wants you dead which is pretty much a death sentence in itself, the only reason you survived the last battle was probably because the guy had thought that the ocean's depths would crush and entomb you"

Yzak looked all but furious at the Raven commander but before he could make any sort of a response to him Athrun spoke up "Commander Lockhart's got a point Yzak, as long as Orb's a neutral country we can't just go in there and start a war besides if that's their official response then there's not much we can do about it" the newly appointed commander explained.

"That's a pretty coolheaded decision commander" remarked Dearka while Yzak still remained irritated with his commanding officer "So what, are we supposed to just pack up and leave then?" he demanded. However Athrun just shook his head "No we've come too far to just give up now, we'll have Carpentaria apply some political pressure but if things aren't resolved quickly then we'll sneak in and confirm if the Legged Ship is indeed there for ourselves"

Athrun then looked over at everyone "Is that acceptable to everyone?" he asked looking over the group "It's fine by us" said Lockhart while his two remaining soldiers nodded their heads in agreement. Yzak seemed to have managed to cool off a little bit by the time he made his next statement.

"Fine" he said before giving a smirk "This way I might actually have the opportunity to see the face of the Strike's pilot for myself" he said with a confident grin on his face.

Athrun frowned at that little comment "Alright this meeting is adjourned" he said before he along with the rest of the other pilots left the briefing room to do whatever it was that they did in their free time. However before Lockhart could leave Athrun spoke up "Commander Lockhart could you wait a moment, I need to speak with you for a minute" he said

Lockhart stopped where he was and walked back into the briefing room. "What happened out there with your subordinate?" Athrun asked but Lockhart just shrugged and seemed completely unbothered by the fact that one of his own men had just been killed by the enemy.

"O'Connor overdosed on the combat stimulant and went into a blood rage, I think that we should be very grateful that the pilot of the Strike killed him when he did when one considers that that madman probably would have attacked Orb's forces and therefore created an even bigger problem for us. And to be perfectly honest I had been contemplating on how I could get rid of that lunatic for the past several days now, he was becoming far too unstable to be of much practical value to this team"

That last comment set off some alarm bells in Athrun's mind. Granted O'Connor was a drug addict and a borderline sociopath that was disliked by just about everyone, even his own teammates but the fact that Harold's own commanding officer had been contemplating on how to kill off one of his subordinates was a little disturbing to Athrun.

"Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?" Lockhart asked.

"No, nothing at all, you can leave now" said Athrun who was feeling a little on edge being in the same room as the leader of the Hydras. Lockhart nodded and left almost immediately afterwards to join his other two subordinates leaving Athrun alone with his thoughts.

Athrun stood there for a few seconds before he left the briefing room. As he walked out Athrun quickly made himself a mental note to keep an eye on commander Lockhart who had already proven capable of allowing his own subordinates to get themselves killed off. There was no telling who the man would screw over next.

* * *

><p>-Chief Representative Uzumi Attha's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Ramius was a little nervous. After all being in front of a well known and very much respected politician in Orb's political circles could have that kind of an effect even with the other three ranking officers on the ship. She didn't want to make a bad impression on the one who had quite frankly just pulled their asses straight out of the fire.<p>

What Uzumi Attha had just done for them could probably end up having some major political backlash from some of the members of the neutral nation's government if this ever got out. There were several government officials who sympathized with the PLANTs who had been all but demanding that Orb's government side with ZAFT in the war.

"Officially we've stated to both the public and the ZAFT force that has been pursuing you that you as well as your ship were chased out of Orb waters a short time ago" he explained with a calm and collected expression. Before Murrue could say anything Mu spoke up "Mister Attha might I inquire as to why it is that you saved us, because it doesn't seem as though you helped us simply because your daughter was onboard" said the mobile armor pilot.

Uzumi Attha then let out a sigh, "You're correct, now let me ask do you think that I could even compare this country's fate to that of my own daughter" he explained before he elaborated "There is much more at stake here than just my own flesh and blood. Please do not think that I'm a heartless monster or anything I am both relieved and overjoyed that Cagalli is still alive but I must consider the lives of everyone else in this nation" Attha explained before he continued.

"This also brings me to the case of Heliopolis, not only were there a number of fatalities that came from the destruction of that colony but we've learned that several civilians eventually volunteered there services to the Atlantic Federation when they were offered to leave the ship" he said before Murrue stood up with a guilty look on her face.

"I'm truly sorry about both Heliopolis and the civilians" she apologized sincerely. Murrue never wanted to drag the students from Heliopolis into their war but at the time there was little choice in the matter. What Uzumi said next surprised her.

"Forget it, we're just as much at fault for what happened at Heliopolis as you are. Since this is also an internal problem in our nation, the primary reason that we're able to maintain our position as a neutral state is because we don't want to face either Naturals or Coordinators as enemies. Unfortunately without any power we can't enforce this and if we were to obtain more power we'd inevitably become a target from either side of this conflict"

"I understand completely sir" said Murrue.

Uzumi Attha hesitated for a second before he spoke up "Also I feel that I must explain the main reason that we spared your ship rather than simply sent it to the bottom of the ocean, we hope to obtain the combat data from both the Archangel and the Strike, we also want you to lend us the Strike's pilot, one Kira Yamato I believe his name was to aid Morgenroete in creating an operating system that will allow Naturals to use mobile suits, if you agree we can provide you with extensive repairs and refits for your ship" he explained

Natarle looked as though she was about to protest to that sort of a demand seeing as how the Archangel was an Atlantic Federation ship but she quickly stopped herself seeing as how it was Murrue's call, not hers. Besides Natarle knew that Uzumi Attha would just as easily kick all of them out of Orb if they tried to refuse something like that.

Several long seconds had passed before Murrue responded "Very well then, we accept your offer" she said before Uzumi turned and looked over at Hackett "And Hackett before you ask the funds that you had been paid for the missions that you have run for us have already been transferred into your unit's account"

Hackett nodded "Thank you mister Attha"

Uzumi Attha then adjourned the meeting and allowed the commanding officers of the Archangel to go back to their ship to inform the crew of their new agreement with the governing body of Orb.

To be continued


	22. Families and Time Off part 1

Armored Seed

Chapter 22

Families and time off part 1

A/N: Before i forget, i should mention that in this fanfiction Reverend Malchio is _not_ blind like he is in the anime.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Captain's Office-<p>

* * *

><p>Murrue Ramius was in her office going over some of the paperwork that was in regards to the Archangel's repairs and refits that the Orb government had been giving them. As she continued to go over some of the paperwork she heard a knock on the door to her office. Murrue let out a sigh, it was probably one of the crew coming to give her more papers to sign.<p>

"Come on in" said Murrue as the door leading into her office started to open. The one who stepped in wasn't the random crewman that Murrue had been expecting, instead it was Nathan Fletcher. Upon entering the captain's office the young Raven gave the captain of the Archangel a crisp and respectful salute.

"At ease Fletcher you don't have to salute me since you're not with the Earth Forces" she said while putting her signature on some more request forms. Nathan ceased giving his salute and then relaxed his posture a little bit.

"Captain seeing as how the Black Skulls are temporarily working for you, you are in fact our commanding officer until such time as we have ceased doing business with you" he explained before continuing "As for the reason as to why I'm here, I have come to make a request for some shore leave for a couple of days"

That one almost threw Murrue for a loop. Ever since Nathan had come aboard the Archangel the only things that she had seen him do were either fight, work on his armored core or something in regards to that the only time he really ever took a break was to either eat, sleep or read something in his quarters. In fact during the short amount of time that they were back at the Raven's Nest it took commander Cross ordering him to take the day off.

Curiously Murrue asked "May I ask why it is you want shore leave?" Nathan let out a bated breath, he knew that question had been coming "Ma'am it has to do with something that is purely a personal matter and I'm not at liberty to say what it is at this time"

Murrue had a feeling that even if she tried to push the issue in order to get some answers as to the reasons for wanting some leave, that Nathan probably wouldn't say anything else. Besides she didn't really have any problem with granting the pilot some shore leave, he had more than had earned it.

"Very well, for the next four days you can consider yourself on shore leave" she declared. Nathan nodded and gave a quick "Thank you captain" and he then made his way out of the Murrue's office.

On Nathan's way out of the captain's office he almost bumped into Mu La Flaga "Pardon me commander" he said politely before continuing on his way towards the hanger where the transport he'd been planning on using was waiting for him. Mu gave quick a glance down the hallway, watching the young pilot make his way towards the hanger deck for a moment before he entered the captain's office.

"What exactly just happened?" he asked.

Murrue looked up from the paperwork she had on her desk and gave a slight shrug "Lieutenant Fletcher had just requested some shore leave for a couple of days and I granted his request for it" she explained. Mu then got a look on his face and Murrue could tell that he was having similar if not the same thoughts that she had before granting Fletcher's request.

"Why'd he ask for shore leave?" he wondered aloud but Murrue just gave the commander a shrug in response. "He said it was a purely personal matter and given that most of the other members of the Archangel as well as just about all of the Black Skulls are already on shore leave I decided that it would alright to allow lieutenant Fletcher some time off as well" Murrue explained before she got a little curious. "May I ask what it is you're doing here?"

Mu La Flaga just let out a small chuckle while he crossed his arms "I was going to ask if you wanted to go and get some lunch together" he explained. The captain of the Archangel looked down at the paperwork she had left to go read over and sign and saw that there wasn't too much of the paperwork remaining. Besides Murrue felt that she had more than deserved a bit of a break from some of her duties as captain.

The Archangel's captain got out of her chair "Sure, why not?" Murrue said before heading to go and have some lunch with someone that she was steadily getting a little closer to almost everyday that she spent time with him.

* * *

><p>-Orb Naval Base, Hanger Bay-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira was typing at almost inhuman speeds at the buttons on the main control console that was built into the Strike's cockpit as he continued to reprogram and repurpose a new version of the Strike's OS which after Kira was finished making it, he would then turn over to Morgenroete as promised.<p>

Despite the speed in which Kira was progressing the young Coordinator had estimated that he still had at least five or six more hours worth of work ahead of him and so prepared for what would probably end up becoming an all-nighter.

At least Kira knew that Flay was probably having some fun at the moment, she along with Li and Mir had all but dragged Tolle, Kuzzey and Sai onto a shopping trip. At first the boys didn't really seem to mind all that much, at least they didn't until Drake and his buddy Adam had butted in and warned that if they weren't going to die of boredom on that shopping trip then they'd definitely end up dying from the excessive amount of stuff that they'd end up buying.

Before they went out they had tried to recruit Kira into their little shopping excursion but thanks to his work that now consumed most of his time he had a legitimate excuse to get out of their trip to town which was almost four hours ago. Kira had become so engrossed in his work on the Strike's OS that he had failed to hear anything that came from the metal catwalks that overlooked the recumbent mobile suit.

"Never once did i think that anybody could type that fast" a familiar voice stated. Kira looked up and saw Cagalli who was leaning right up against the railing and was looking down directly at him. "Hi Cagalli" said Kira before he ceased typing in commands to the Strike's main computer.

"You now when I first came down here and saw you in the Strike I almost didn't recognize you, you were always wearing an Atlantic Federation uniform" she said. Kira looked at her and shrugged "The Orb government doesn't want us to wear anything that would identify as part of the Earth Forces when we're outside of the Archangel" he explained.

At first Kira didn't know why that was exactly but he soon found out that there was actually a very legitimate reason behind that little rule. If someone saw one of the Archangel crewmembers wearing something that belonged to the Earth Forces then that information could end up leading straight back to ZAFT. Then Orb would be in an enormous political scandal.

"Hey Cagalli I've been meaning to ask you something for a while but I never really got around to asking you this" he said before Cagalli got a curious look on her face. What did he want to know?

"Why were you at Morgenroete the day that Heliopolis was attacked?" he asked. Cagalli sighed, she had a feeling that this question would come up again eventually and she was surprised that he of all people would be the one who asked her that same question. Soon Cagalli just decided that it would probably be better to tell him the honest truth behind the matter.

"I'd heard rumors that Orb had begun development on mobile suits for the Earth Forces. At first I couldn't believe that a neutral nation like Orb would actually do something like that, so I confronted my father on whether or not the rumors were true but he just kept on avoiding the issue entirely. Eventually I heard that the mobile suits were being constructed at the Morgenroete compound at Heliopolis so I went to go and see if the rumors were true for myself" she explained.

"I heard a few people saying that maybe your father, er, I mean Chief Representative Attha didn't even know about it at the time" Kira said trying to help restore some faith that Cagalli had in her father while typing in a few more commands on the console. Cagalli's face hardened angrily at Kira's last comment making him wonder if he would have been better off had he simply kept his mouth shut.

"My father never once denied that he knew about what was going on at Heliopolis" she explained. Kira ceased typing and looked down at the computer and decided that now would be a nice time for a break and proceeded to climb up out of the Strike's cockpit and onto the catwalk and was more than a little glad that he was now able to get out of the cockpit of the Strike. In regards to Cagalli's answer however it still left him with more questions in regards to why she was with the rebels and he wanted to confirm or disprove his own suspicions in regards to them.

"Is that why you were with those resistance fighters? You were pissed off with your dad and you decided to just run away and join a band of rebels?" Kira asked having always presumed that that was the reason as to why she was with a band rebels in North Africa ever since they had met. Cagalli shook her head, "When I got back from Heliopolis and demanded why my dad was violating Orb's neutrality all that my father said was that I still didn't know how it was that the world worked so I decided to go out there and see for myself just how the world worked" she explained.

"So that's all?" Kira asked incredulously, she seemed to have gone a little overboard in her attempt to understand how the world worked. The tomboy princess then looked at him with an unreadable expression "In the desert, everyone fought like it was their last day on earth. That place was just a pile of sand and they were more than willing to die just to defend it"

"And here's Orb" she said her arms spread out wide gesturing to everything around her.

"We've got so much power but do we even do anything with it? No of course we don't. We just want to stay on the good side of both the PLANTs as well as the Earth Forces don't you find that a bit unfair?" she asked. "Would you rather be fighting Cagalli, is that what you want?" Kira asked. Cagalli gave him an agitated look "All that I want is for this pointless war to be over!" she exclaimed.

Kira looked at the Strike in a sullen manner _'Sometimes I wonder if it'll ever be truly over'_ he wondered. There was too much bad blood between the Earth Forces and the PLANTs for there to ever be a true peace. After all, ZAFT and the PLANTs were still pissed off at the Earth Forces for the destruction of Junius Seven along with everyone that lived there and the Earth Forces were angry over the fact that in response to the massacre thousands of N-Jammers were then deployed which caused a major energy crisis because all nuclear energy was rendered useless by the machines.

It would probably end up taking a miracle for the war to end without the complete annihilation of either side

* * *

><p>Nathan continued to drive the car he'd borrowed down the practically deserted road that would take him back to the place that he had grown up. It was nearly sunset so there were only a few cars driving around here and there but there were a few people trying to get back home to their loved ones as well as a few teenagers who were planning on a night on the town.<p>

Not many people were out and about doing things aside from a few teenagers with too much time on their hands as well as a number of families that lived in the area who needed to go out and go shopping or something like that every once and a while.

As Nathan continued to drive the car he spotted a turn up ahead that would most likely lead him to his destination. Without any hesitation Nathan made the turn onto the road and continued to drive down it, he was very close to his intended destination. The orphanage had been built very close along the coastline of Orb which Nathan used to occasionally wonder if it had once been owned by someone who was extremely wealthy, especially when one considered the building's mansion like size.

While the Raven Pilot drove down through the side road he noticed how very little had changed in the two years since he left the orphanage. The houses that dotted the suburbs of the area were still around not to mention the forests that surrounded the area were still standing as well. When Nathan had turned onto the road had half expected that at least part of the forest in the area to have been torn down by now to make room for more houses. The lonely drive down the road continued for another twenty minutes before he finally reached his destination.

The car was parked a few dozen yards away from the front entrance to the orphanage and Nathan had started to have some second thoughts about visiting his old home.

When Nathan had left the orphanage to join the Black Skulls he had an argument with the reverend who ran the place. The priest that ran the place had said that Nathan was throwing his life away just so that he could become a killer for hire despite Nathan's protests about the Raven unit that he had been planning joining having never taken a single innocent life since their formation.

Nathan sighed, he didn't come all this way just to back out so he might as well finish the journey. The Raven pilot got out of the car and walked towards the orphanage admiring some of the scenery as he did. Not ten seconds later Nathan had managed to find himself in front of the orphanage's entryway.

'_Well it looks like there's no turning back now'_ he thought as he reached for the doorbell and pressed down on it with his index finger.

Only a few moments after the doorbell had gone off Nathan heard the pattering of feet running around behind the large oak wood doors. Judging by the sound that was being generated as the footsteps grew closer and closer to the door Nathan surmised that it was most likely a child that was coming to answer the door.

A few moments later the door opened with a slight creak and a couple of kids, a boy and a girl who looked to be no older than seven or eight years old looked up at the strange man with both curious and slightly frightened expressions which probably had to do with his eye color. The boy turned his head and yelled over to what Nathan assumed to be the one who was running the orphanage.

"Um, reverend! There's a weird looking person at the door!" the boy called while the girl looked even more nervous if not frightened the longer that she was in Nathan's presence. Fortunately the little girl didn't have to wait very long in until the one that was in charge of the orphanage came up to the front door. Sure enough the reverend that was in charge of the orphanage was there not five seconds later. After the reverend had arrived at the front door the two children scampered back into the orphanage to go and play with their friends or something.

Nathan was a little surprised that the same man from two years ago was still running the same orphanage and contrary to what had happened with Nathan, the reverend's appearance was almost completely unchanged from when Nathan had last seen him. The older man still had the same neck length slicked back graying brown hair and wise demeanor that he had always had. When Nathan had arrived he had half expected the old reverend to have been transferred or something along those lines to someplace else. Apparently however this was not the case.

"Can I help you sir?" reverend Malchio asked politely. It was apparent the good reverend didn't recognize him which was expected, after all Nathan had undergone a few changes since he was last there. "It's been a while, almost two years since we saw each other last in fact, reverend Malchio" Nathan said.

It took a few moments but Malchio's eyes widened once he finally recognized Nathan's voice and face.

"N-Nathan, what are you doing here?And what in heaven's name happened to you?" he asked totally shocked at Nathan's sudden reappearance after absolutely no contact from him for two whole years as well as Nathan's new reserved and almost emotionless attitude and demeanor.

"I was in the neighborhood" Nathan shrugged "Thought that I'd stop by" he half explained. Finally overcoming his shock Malchio opened the door even more than it already was and movedaside. "Please, come on in" Malchio insisted and Nathan did as was requested from the older man and stepped into the orphanage. Once inside Nathan saw that just like the outside of the building very little had changed since he was last there.

Almost everything was the same as when he had left the orphanage, most of the furniture that was there two years ago was still where they were originally positioned. While Nathan took in his surroundings Malchio looked at the boy a little with both a puzzled and worried expression. The Nathan that Malchio had known was a person who always looked the way he felt and whose emotions were always on his face.

This person that was standing in front of Malchio was nothing like the old Nathan. The young man who was standing right in front of him was completely reserved and didn't show an inkling of emotion while he looked around and Malchio knew for a fact that those red iris' were most likely from some sort of an artificial implant, a very lifelike one to be precise. Not wasting any more time Malchio asked "May I ask what happened after you joined that…" Malchio trailed off trying to come up with something to say that wouldn't offend Nathan. Eventually though the reverend had managed to find the right words "…Group?"

Nathan sighed and said "That's kind of a long story reverend and I'd rather not talk about it right now" Malchio saw the pain and pain, anger and hatred that were in his eyes and although he wanted to know what happened he decided it would probably be for the best if didn't press the issue. The reverend did know however that whatever the reason for this behavior he didn't believe that it was the Skulls who were responsible. Although he didn't approve of Nathan joining their ranks they didn't seem like the kind of people to just make a good personsuffer.

"Well then perhaps a cup of tea will suffice for now?" Malchio asked kindly. Nathan nodded in response "Tea sounds pleasant" the priest then lead the Raven pilot to the backyard of the orphanage. Malchio led his guest through the house while some of the other orphans who were in the mansion looked curiously at the guest from where they were, but none of the kids approached Nathan due to his icy demeanor. Outside in the back yard of the orphanage there was a large grassy field as well as a few playground sets for the children to enjoy when they were not inside the building getting their studies done.

Nathan and Malchio sat down at a nearby table and began to converse "So how has the orphanage been doing since I left?" Nathan asked. Malchio took a small sip from his tea before he replied to Nathan's question. "It's been quite well actually, we've acquired a good source of funding and it's taken quite a load off of our shoulders" he explained. "Who's the your new benefactor?" Nathan asked curiously.

Malchio let out a small chuckle "Actually it's an old one, they originally helped set this place up nearly twenty five years ago and just recently they started to provide us with more funding than we really need, I didn't even ask for any help, they said that it was a gift to an old friend" the priest explained. That was news to Nathan. Most people, especially those who were rich enough to afford to help maintain something like this, didn't just give away money without expecting something back so who in the hell would generous enough to-

Nathan's train of thought was interrupted when a very familiar female voice rang out "Reverend Malchio, some of the kids have been wondering when lunch is going to be served, should I go and get it out or does it need to be cooked?" Nathan turned his head and he was surprised (to say the least) to see Lacus Clyne of all people standing nearby. The instant that Lacus spotted Nathan she immediately made their way towards them and she was even starting to blush quite a bit as well.

The Raven pilot had found that to be a bit odd but he just shrugged it off as the pink haired girl being herself.

Malchio however didn't seem to notice their surprised looks and instead decided to introduce his guest to her "Ah Lacus, please allow me to introduce Nathan Fletcher he used to live here a few years back" Lacus looked quite shocked at the prospect that the person that she now admired used to live at the orphanage that a family friend owned but Nathan looked as reserved as ever despite his own surprise at finding that girl here.

"Not to be rude or anything but what exactly is a well known and very much famous pop star from the PLANTs doing at an orphanage in Orb?" he asked. Lacus then walked over to where the reverend and the Raven pilot were sitting.

"My father and reverend Malchio are both old friends and my father helps maintain this orphanage, I'm here visiting" she said with that same kind and heart warming smile that she almost always gave.

Much to Nathan's relief and slight confusion, Lacus' little robot pet, Haro he believed it was called if his memory was correct, wasn't bouncing around anywhere. Perhaps the kids who lived at the orphanage were playing with it somewhere but that machine mattered very little at that moment. Lacus looked over at a nearby chair that was by the table that Malchio and Nathan were both sitting at and had a seat "So Nathan might I ask you what brings you to this orphanage?" she asked curiously.

Nathan shrugged almost nonchalantly "I guess I just wanted to revisit the place that I lived at for the first fifteen years of my life" he said. That one really through Lacus for a loop, she had visited the orphanage many times but not once had she ever met Nathan before being rescued from that life pod. "Wait I've visited this orphanage several times before how come I've never seen you here before now?" Lacus asked. Nathan once again just shrugged.

"I used to have a job at the docks several miles away from here, it had very long hours and sometimes I couldn't get back until around ten o'clock at night so it is possible that whenever you decided on visiting I was probably at work" that seemed like a reasonable explanation because Nathan had never once seen Lacus at Malchio's orphanage.

"Hey Nathan" said Lacus getting the red eyed pilot's attention again "Yeah?" he asked curiously "Can I show you something?" she asked "Sure I guess" Nathan replied with a shrug.

Lacus was about to lead him to the spot she wanted to show him before Lacus realized that she hadn't even asked Malchio if he was done talking to him. "Oh! That is if it's okay with you reverend" Lacus said a little embarrassed. Malchio let out a small chuckle before responding "It's quite alright, you two go and have some fun, I'll go and see to the children" the old reverend said with a kind hearted smile before Lacus thanked him and promptly grabbed Nathan's arm and proceeded to drag him towards the forest that was situated just a few dozen yards away from the orphanage.

Nathan and Lacus trudged their way through the woods for almost twenty minutes. As they continued their little journey through the forest Nathan started to wonder what it was that Lacus wanted to show him so badly. However he didn't really need to wait very long until he found out as they began to reach what seemed to be a clearing in the wooded area.

Once they walked beyond the clearing Nathan saw a small grassland that ended near a seemingly endless beach that acted as a border between the land and the vast endless ocean that stretched eastwards. Lacus let go of Nathan's hand almost reluctantly and looked up at him with that same heartwarming smile.

"I always like coming out here, the sand and the ocean are both so beautiful especially when the sun starts to rise" she said. Nathan looked out at the ocean himself, listening to the waves slide up against the shore. It was a nice place he'd give it that much but he had seen many beaches before and if you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all depending on where you lived.

As he looked out at the ocean for a few moments more he turned to Lacus and asked "Why did you create that song?" he asked curiously. Lacus immediately knew which song that he was referring to. The most recent song that she sang had only been created a couple of weeks after they had parted company shortly before the Archangel made landfall on Earth.

Lacus looked at Nathan with a kind and almost serene expression. Lacus continued to smile even as she explained her actions to the Raven pilot "All I wanted to do was help restore your dream"

Nathan almost scoffed, "Why bother? After all it's pretty damn obvious something like that will never happen" he said. Lacus felt disheartened at that comment "But I still think that it's a dream worth pursuing, I believe that it can be done with time" The Raven pilot rolled his eyes

"Humans have been killing each other since the dawn of time over things like religion and ideology. An endless number of people have tried to permanently change the world for the better. All of them failed, so what chance did a couple of naïve kids have?" he asked cynically.

Lacus looked down "I'm sorry you feel that way Nathan, all I wanted to do was to help, that's all"

With an annoyed grunt Nathan sat down on the small patch of grassland that was near the beach, "Why the hell can't anyone accept that I don't want anyone's help?" he demanded irritably.

At first Lacus felt more than just a little hurt by that but she had knew that the reason that Nathan had always pushed people away was because he was worried that he'd feel the same kind pain and sadness that he'd felt when Mira had been killed if he got too close to someone.

"You're a good person Nathan, I don't want to see someone like you tear yourself apart like this" she said sitting down as well. Nathan frowned before giving Lacus a very serious expression.

"Lacus, I'm not a good person, after all there's a very good reason that I'm called the Red Eyed Devil. After I buried Mira, I spent the next week and a half hunting down the bastards that killed everyone on Junius Seven and destroyed my one real shot at a normal life. When I found the Earth Forces ship that was used in the killing I managed to sneak my way onboard, when I got to the bridge I held everyone that was there hostage before I accessed the environmental controls and vented all of the air outside of the bridge out into space, everyone that wasn't present on the bridge of that carrier died within a few seconds, then I killed the entire bridge staff.

They all begged me to spare their pathetic lives but I ignored them, I slit each of their throats one by one until finally only the captain was left. I was going to make his death similar to that of his men but then he said that coordinators were an abomination in the eyes of god, and that killing over three hundred thousand of them was no different than stepping on three hundred thousand ants. He also remarked that because I fell in love with one that I was nothing more than a traitor to the purity of the human race.

When that bastard said that I just lost it, I beat him relentlessly and after a while I slammed his face into the glass screen of a computer console, all I could think about was how that bastard needed to suffer. I was so blinded by rage and my need for revenge that I didn't notice the son of a bitch pick up a knife like shard of glass until it was too late. The captain of that ship tried to slash open my neck but he missed and instead the shard of glass slashed at my eyes, which basically blinded me. Thankfully though the attack knocked the bastard off balance and I was able to bury my knife in that bastard's heart, a few hours later after managing to patch myself up the Black Skulls found me, completely covered in blood with a makeshift bandage over my eyes.

After getting a new pair of eyes I told them what had happened on that ship, at first Hackett refused to allow me to go on any missions until I'd undergone some psychological therapy. After doing that for well over a month they finally let me get back to my job and that's how it's been for over a year" he said finishing the story.

Once Nathan was done he saw that Lacus had a look of pure horror on her face perhaps now she realized that he had done more than enough to earn his newer moniker. Of course that incident wasn't the only reason that he got that little nickname, oh no, it was how he had fought in combat _after_ getting those implants that had earned him that moniker.

Much to Nathan's shock however, instead of fearing him or something similar like a lot of people did when they found out about him she embraced him in a tight hug.

Nathan was caught so off guard that he didn't notice that Lacus was crying until tears streaming down her face until they soaked into his shirt "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" she said. Nathan could say with absolute honesty that he hadn't expected Lacus to react like this.

"What are you sorry for?" he said a little more than confused by her actions. She didn't do anything wrong so why was she behaving like this. "I'm sorry that you've had to suffer so much in your life" she said not showing any signs of letting him go. Not really having any real idea as to what he should do, Nathan simply returned the pink haired girl's embrace. The pair stayed like that for a few minutes before they finally released one another.

Lacus had stopped crying just a few minutes earlier before which was a relief for Nathan, _'She definitely looks a lot prettier when she isn't crying'_ he thought before his cheeks turned slightly crimson. '_Where the hell did that come from?'_ He wondered idly to himself but he decided to push that thought aside for a while.

"Come on let's get back before Malchio decides to send out a search party for us or something" Nathan suggested, "That sounds like a good idea" Lacus replied somewhat eagerly. The par of them arrived back at the orphanage within a few minutes time despite the fact that it was a little difficult to see due to the fact that the sun had already finished setting. They approached the back door where they could hear sounds coming from the first floor kitchen/dining room which told them that dinner was almost ready.

Before Lacus or Nathan reentered the building Lacus spoke up "Um, Nathan I was wondering if it would be alright if we could have lunch together sometime. I mean if that's alright with you?" she requested.

"Sure, I have a few days of shore leave so I don't really see why not" he responded. A smile grew on Lacus' face as she said "That's great, how about we get together tomorrow around noon and head out into town?" she asked. Nathan thought for a moment and seeing as how he didn't have anything planned for that day he couldn't see why not, "Sure, sounds nice" he said as they reentered the orphanage.

Once inside the two of them headed for the dining room where presumably everyone was waiting for them. The opened the door and saw most of the kids sitting down at the table waiting for their food to be served. It also seemed as though that the children had decided on reserving two spots for both of the visitors which coincidentally were both right across from each other.

The Raven pilot also noticed that the kids weren't nearly as nervous around him as they used to be. The good reverend probably had something to do with that for which Nathan was thankful for. The food that was being served was a mixture of barbecued steak and steamed vegetables. Both Nathan and Lacus sat down and waited for the food to be served all the while the kids started to bombard Nathan with seemingly random questions, even after the food had been served and everyone was starting to eat their dinner.

Nathan answered the questions as best he could considering that most of them came out rapid fire but eventually they began to get more and more into his personal life. Eventually the kids got on the topic of why his eye color was the way it was. "Have your eyes always been that way?" one of the kids, a boy who looked to be about eight years old asked. At first Nathan felt a little awkward at that question but he quickly regained his composure "No" he said not really wishing to go into further detail.

However the kid didn't intend on getting just a one word answer "How did they get that way?" he asked not noticing that his prodding was starting to bother Nathan "I don't think that it's really any of your business, so please just leave me alone" he said. The kid was about to press the issue but before he could Malchio cut in "Noah, that man said that he didn't want to talk about, please respect his wishes"

At Malchio's request the kid did as he was told and the rest of the dinner proceeded normally, with everyone chatting amongst themselves.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Kira's Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira was busy typing away like a maniac at the computer. He was practically done with the new Natural OS, he was so close that he could almost feel it. After he was finished with the OS he'd combine it with the one that was in the Strike and hand it over to lord Izumi Attha as was promised. After a few minutes Kira heard the door to his room slide open. The young Coordinator swiveled around in his chair to face the newcomer and saw Flay in a an outfit that looked similar that she was wearing on when they were back on Heliopolis. When Kira remembered Heliopolis it felt like so long ago even though it was only almost a month since that fateful day.<p>

Kira was broken out of his thoughts when Flay spoke up "Well I'm ready, are you?" she asked.

For a moment Kira wondered what it was that she meant when she said that before it finally hit him. He and Flay were going to go and meet his parents. How in the hell could he have forgotten something like that? Kira then chalked it up to being much too engrossed in his work.

"Uh, sure, could you just give me a minute" he said holding up his index finger. A few moments later he was out of his Earth Forces uniform and was instead in a much more casual outfit that he would normally wear whenever it was that he was off duty.

As Kira and Flay walked out of his quarters all the while Flay was scolding him for his forgetfulness "I can't believe you forgot that we were going to meet your parents, I mean I know your busy but _really_! You haven't seen them in person since you went to Heliopolis I would have thought that meeting them would be among the first things on your mind" she chastised.

"Sorry, it's just that I, well I've been really kind of engrossed in working on the Natural OS" Kira explained. Flay let out an exasperated sigh and took her boyfriend by the arm and began to lead him down to where Kira's parents were waiting for them.

It didn't take them very long to get to the main entrance where Kira's family was waiting for him. As Kira and Flay headed there they passed a viewing area that held another hanger which contained several new Gundam mobile suits. Apparently after the events in Heliopolis, Orb had begun to create a number of newer models based on what data they had from the older ones.

According to Izumi Attha the Astray models would take their place on the battlefield within a few weeks. If someone were to place the Strike and one of the Astrays next to each other then other than a few small differences no one could really tell the difference between the two.

In fact each one had a similar armament to that of the Strike (minus the striker packs of course which were still under production for the Astrays). Their standard armament consisted of a beam rifle, a pair of beam sabers along with two head mounted CIWs.

However those weren't the ones that had caught Kira's eye. There were four other Gundams that were being stored in the hanger, the Freedom which was a mid to long range combat model, it was armed with a pair of shoulder mounted beam cannons, two hip mounted rail guns, a beam rifle and a pair of beam sabers as well as head mounted CIWs, it could also include a shield for additional defense.

There was a crimson colored Gundam not too dissimilar in design from the Aegis. This mobile suit was known as the Justice. Like the Freedom, the Justice carried a pair of beam cannons, two beam sabers, a pair of beam boomerangs, multiple machine gun units and a sub flight system which allowed better flight capabilities while in atmosphere and of course like the Freedom, the Justice could be equipped with a shield.

The third was a dark and rather sinister looking Gundam known as the Providence which was probably one of the more advanced of the four new Gundams, the Providence had a shield mounted beam rifle and beam saber as well as a heavy duty beam rifle that went over the Gundam's shoulder. The Providence also had a very large saucer shaped backpack that had what appeared to be detachable spikes coming out of the sides but Kira couldn't really be sure as he didn't ask what they were and instead assumed that the backpack was a kind of flight stabilization unit.

The fourth mobile suit was a blue and white painted Gundam known as the Seraph. The Seraph was designed for frontline warfare. Its armament included two shoulder mounted heavy CIWs as well as two head mounted standard CIWs, a beam rifle which had a kind of underslung grenade launcher similar to the one that was used by the Duel only it had more than one shot if the magazine mounted underneath the launcher was anything to go by.

The Seraph also carried two foldable long range rail guns which had been mounted on the Seraph's shoulders, a pair of beam sabers that could be drawn from either side of the waist (of course) and an optional shield mount for the left arm. The most defining feature of the Seraph was the two pairs of wings attached to its back that looked (to Kira at least) a lot like angel wings which were used as a flight system.

Flay and Kira passed the viewing area and headed for a nearby door. After going through several hallways and doors both Kira and Flay had finally reached the front entrance of the Morgenroete facility where Kira's family was waiting for him.

Caridad and Haruma Yamato both were waiting anxiously for their son to arrive. It had been quite a long time since they had seen him and when Heliopolis was destroyed they both feared the worst. The instant that Caridad had heard about Heliopolis' destruction and the fact that he wasn't among those that had been rescued it had all but crushed her. When she had heard that Kira was in fact still alive it took her the better part of an hour to stop crying tears of joy. And now Caridad's son was only a few moments away from being in her arms once again. The second that the door leading to the restricted area opened, Caridad and Haruma saw Kira, who was alive and well enter from there along with a girl with mid length red hair.

Not wasting any time Kira's mother rushed over to where Kira was standing and took the surprised boy in a tight embrace as though she were afraid that he'd vanish if she was to let go of him. For a moment Flay and Kira's father just stood there while Caridad Yamato started to break out into tears.

"We were afraid that you had been killed" she wept still embracing the young Coordinator. Kira struggled for a few moments more, trying to get some breathing room while he was stuck in his mother's unrelenting grip before Flay finally spoke up "Um, Mrs. Yamato I don't think that Kira can breathe" she said hoping that the woman wouldn't end up getting her boyfriend inadvertently killed while Haruma walked over to the woman and gave his own input.

"Honey I know that you were incredibly distraught when you thought he was dead and that you're happy to see him again, but I think that the young lady is right, you should ease up a bit before he passes out" he suggested.

Caridad Yamato then looked down at her son and saw that it didn't seem like he was breathing much and immediately let go. Kira took several deep breaths while Flay got a worried look on her face "Are you alright Kira?" she asked. Kira nodded as he took a few more deep breaths.

After Kira managed to start breathing a little more normally his father spoke up "So Kira, who's this lovely young lady?" he asked trying to steer the everyone's thoughts away from the fact that Caridad almost ended up making her son pass out by accident.

Before Kira could say anything Flay spoke up "I'm Flay Allster and I'm his girlfriend" she proclaimed while Kira got a slight blush on his face, his dad would probably end up teasing him for this now. It seemed that he had been proven right, Haruma looked over at his son with an amused look on his face.

"It would appear that a lot of _interesting_ things have happened ever since you went to that technical institute back on Heliopolis" said Kira's father wiggling his eyebrows suggestively while he said the word 'interesting'.

Kira and Flay simultaneously blushed at the implications that Kira's father had just made about them. Haruma Yamato then gestured Kira and Flay to come with him and his wife.

"Come on you two, we'll discuss this over dinner" Caridad invited kindly before they all headed for the Naval base's exit.

To be continued.


	23. Families and Time Off part 2

Armored Seed

Chapter 23

Families and Time Off Part 2

* * *

><p>-Yamato Family Residence, living room-<p>

* * *

><p>Kira and Flay had arrived at the Yamato residence only a few minutes earlier along with Kira's parents. The home in itself was fairly standard for most middle class families. It had two stories, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a dining area along with a small basement.<p>

Currently they were all in the living room attempting to get to know one another. The family continued to sit in silence for a while before Kira's mother spoke up in the hopes of starting a conversation "So tell us Kira, how exactly did you first meet Flay?" she asked curiously.

"Well I, uh, guess that you could say that we first met back at the technical institute back at Heliopolis, we shared some of the same classes together" Kira explained although he didn't really understand the question his mother had just asked him. Did she mean when he and Flay had first met each other at the tech institute or when they first engaged in a romantic relationship?

"So you two got together while you were still in school?" she asked before turning to her son, looking for some kind of an explanation as to why they hadn't been told of this little development "Kira why didn't you mention this to us in any of your letters?" she asked a little disappointed that he had left that kind of information out.

Kira sputtered for a few seconds in an attempt to figure out what it was that he should say to his parents but was saved the trouble when Flay spoke up "Actually we only started a relationship a few weeks ago and Kira wasn't really in a position to send you any letters" she explained to which Kira gave her a grateful look. That answer seemed to have satisfied Kira's mother.

"So how far have the two of you gotten in your relationship exactly?" asked Haruma. Both Kira and Flay blushed at that question which gave Kira's parents all the information that they needed.

Eventually Kira spoke up "Well, we have had lunch together and we've kissed a few times" he admitted albeit a little reluctantly to which both his parents looked at each other and nodded before smiling at the two of them knowingly.

"So Flay would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?" Kira's mother asked noticing that Flay looked a tad bit on the nervous side, it appeared that she really wanted both of Kira's parents to come and accept her.

"Well up until just recently I went to the same technical school that Kira went to and we even shared some of the same classes together during our last semester, we never really got to know each other until after we were aboard the Archangel" she explained before giving further elaboration.

"Whenever we had some free time my friends and I would like to go shopping and hang out, the usual stuff" she explained before Kira's parents proceeded to ask more questions about their relationship. Flay decided that it would probably be for the best if she left out her father's ideologies in regards to Coordinators to avoid any possible misunderstandings.

After conversing some more the topic of conversation eventually entered into Flay's family. Once that occurred Kira gave Flay a sympathetic glance, he knew full well that she was probably still hurting since her father had been killed.

The moment that she had been asked about who her parents were, Flay hesitated for a few moments before she reluctantly spoke up "My mom died shortly after giving birth to me and my dad was high up in the Atlantic Federation Government before he was killed along with several others on a military ship back in space a few weeks ago" she explained trying desperately to hold back her tears by just recalling the event.

Almost immediately both of Kira's parents realized that they had just entered some very sensitive territory for the girl and gave Flay looks of profound and genuine sympathy.

"We're both very sorry Flay neither of us meant to bring up any bad memories" Caridad apologized as her son gave his girlfriend a sympathetic look while he put one of his hands on Flay's shoulder consolingly.

Flay said nothing for a few moments before finally she spoke "It's alright, I just don't really want to talk about that right now" she said. The rest of the talk eventually reached the topic as to how it was that they had gotten together. When first asked when they had first started to become a couple.

Kira and Flay were a little reluctant to go into too many details since they had a lot to do with some of the Archangel's operations which were classified. Then there was the fact that up until just a few weeks ago Flay used to be someone that had actually sympathized with the Blue Cosmos which most likely wouldn't go over too well with the fact that their son was a Coordinator.

Even worse was the fact that they had been working alongside a Raven group as well. Kira had once mentioned (Off-screen) that his parents thought that Ravens were little more than a bunch of glorified mercenaries.

After that was done Kira did his best to try and help get Flay's mind off of what had been said at dinner and showed her around the house. Eventually the two got to Kira's room which was relatively standard for a teenager of his age. Most of the room was unkempt with random electronics and technology magazines strewn over parts of the floor.

The bed wasn't made and the desk that he had on one end of the room was in no better straights either. The desk had a small computer on it along with several cases that contained disks although some of the contents of the cases had been strewn all over the desk.

Flay looked over her boyfriend with a questioning look. Kira blushed while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly "I've always been a bit of a geek" he explained. Flay just smiled and embraced Kira in a gentle embrace "It's just one of the many things that I love about you" she said while closing her eyes and leaning in.

Kira did the same but the instant before their lips connected someone began to knock at the door "Kira, Flay, dinner is ready" Caridad called out. Kira reluctantly pulled out of the near-kiss and turned to the door "We're coming mom" he said but before he could head for the door Flay whispered "I hope that we'll be able to continue this later".

Kira smiled at his girlfriend and said "Yeah I hope so too" before they both continued out and headed downstairs where dinner was being served.

* * *

><p>-Reverend Malchio's orphanage, guest room-<p>

* * *

><p>For Nathan dinner had ended nearly an hour ago and currently he was standing in one of the four guest rooms that the reverend had available for any overnight visitors. After everyone had finished their dinner, Nathan had helped Lacus out with cleaning the dishes since he had little else to do.<p>

By the time that he was finished with dinner and cleaning up after it, it was getting late. Although Nathan had just said that he intended on just getting a hotel room, Malchio quickly insisted that Nathan spend the night at the orphanage. The room he was in was actually pretty nice for a guest room. There was one bed, a desk on the opposite side of the room and a fan up on the ceiling to provide a little bit of comfort during some of the more hotter months of the year.

Nathan looked over to the digital clock that was on the nightstand to his left, the time was almost ten o'clock. Nathan undressed down to his underwear and slipped under the bed sheets and thought about Lacus. In a lot of ways Lacus reminded Nathan a lot of Mira.

Lacus was compassionate, caring and she almost went out of her way to try and help others if what Malchio had told him about how she had been helping out at the orphanage ever since her arrival was anything to go by.

Whenever Nathan was around the girl he felt something that was similar the feeling to whenever he was with Mira during the time that the two of them were together. The Raven pilot pushed those thoughts from his mind for a while, he didn't want to start another relationship.

The reason for this was because to him it almost felt like he was insulting Mira's memory. Besides Lacus was engaged to be married to that Athrun fellow and Nathan didn't want to turn this into some sort of a political scandal. Or at least that was what he kept telling himself anyways.

Despite this however he still really wanted to spend some time with Lacus and besides it wasn't like they were going out for a romantic dinner or anything, they were just going to hang out together. Deciding that it would be best if he were to push those thoughts aside for a while Nathan turned off the light and closed his eyes before allowing sleep to take him.

That night all of Nathan's dreams were filled with nothing but similar disturbing images to the ones that had haunted him when he had crashed on Earth while protecting the Archangel. The corpse like version of Mira tormented him with visions of some of his failures.

The most prominent and most repeatedly shown of these horrific visions was the nuclear missile being launched at Junius Seven right before it exploded, causing decompression within the colony and sending everyone that was within it out into the cold, dark void of space where they would soon die due to the complete lack of oxygen.

The Raven pilot awoke with a gasp and slowly sat up while wiping the sweat from his forehead. Nathan did his best to shake off those horrific images from his head but it was difficult at best for him. Eventually though he managed to force most of the images from the nightmare out of his mind.

Nathan managed to lurch himself off of the bed and he walked over to where he had placed his clothes last night and got dressed. After getting dressed he calmly started to walk downstairs.

As Nathan made his way down there he did his best to avoid bumping into the kids that were sprinting downstairs as quickly as they were able so that they could get breakfast. Sometimes Nathan envied those that were younger than him, most kids didn't so much as have a care in the world, all they really wanted was to go out, have fun and play with their friends. The harsh realities of life hadn't started to hit them yet.

The red eyed teen shook those thoughts out of his head and continued to make his way down to the dining room. Once Nathan had arrived at the dining room he quickly took a seat at the table.

The children were all conversing with one another happily discussing what they intended on doing once their educational lessons for the day had finally ended. As Nathan began to eat his breakfast he heard someone take the seat next to him. Nathan looked over to the no longer vacant seat and saw that Lacus was now using it.

The pink haired pop star looked over at Nathan with that same kind, friendly and overall sweet smile that she normally had on her face. "Good morning Nathan" she said cheerfully. Nathan turned his head and looked straight at Lacus with the same reserved expression that he always had on.

"Morning Lacus, did you sleep well?" Nathan asked politely.

"Why yes, thanks for asking" the meal then continued with everyone chatting amongst themselves about seemingly random topics that went from what they intended on doing once their classes were finished for the day, to something that they had seen and/or done sometime earlier.

After another ten minutes the meal that the children were eating had finally finished. The children took their plates back to the kitchen where they would later be washed. Once that had been done they all followed the reverend to the schoolroom where a teacher that reverend Malchio had hired a while back would begin to teach the day's lessons.

Seeing as how both Nathan and Lacus had already finished their breakfast they decided to leave that part of the building since there was little point in remaining there. As they walked out of the dining room Lacus walked beside him and asked "So what do you want to do now?"

Nathan thought about the question for a few moments before answering "Since I arrived I haven't really had the time to have a look around, I want to see how much the place has changed over the last two years" he said before Lacus grabbed his arm causing him to slightly blush before giving him an updated tour of the pace

The two looked around the building for a while seeing as how Nathan was trying to gauge just how much things had changed in the past two years. Although it had only been two years, Nathan felt as though he had been away for almost an eternity. The minute that they had finished having a look around the first floor rooms they headed upstairs and after walking around for a while they eventually came across the very same room he used to live in when he was still living at the orphanage.

The very instant that Nathan had explained to her of the significance of the room that they were both standing in front of Lacus encouraged Nathan to go on and open it up to see how much it had changed. Without any kind of hesitation Nathan opened the door and peered inside.

Almost unsurprisingly the inside of the room was a little bit different given that it now probably had a new owner. There were a few toys and clothes that were scattered all over the floor along with a few children's books but that was about it, most of the furniture remained exactly where it had been almost a year ago.

Despite the small differences to Nathan it looked almost the same as he had left it. The two of them then continued on and continued to tour the rest of the second floor of the orphanage. As both Nathan and Lacus continued Nathan noticed that other than his old room very little had changed in the orphanage's interior leaving the Raven operator feeling somewhat nostalgic about being at the orphanage again.

* * *

><p>-Orb, Marshall Islands, near the Orb Naval dock-<p>

* * *

><p>Athrun looked over at one of the military docks that were beyond a chain link fence linked with barbed wire with a calm look about him even though he was inwardly frustrated. A few hours earlier he, Nichol, Dearka and Yzak had infiltrated the Marshall Islands which was part of Orb and they were looking for any sign that the Archangel had made port there. They were all dressed up as civilian maintenance workers so that way they would be able to move about the area freely and not draw any sort of suspicion.<p>

So far though their search had brought them very little results. There was no sign of the ship anywhere on any of the military or privately owned docks and piers that they had checked. It was almost noon and they had been making their around the entire island for the past five hours but at least they were able to bring a car with them when they arrived or things may have been a lot more trouble to get around.

"People around here seem to be pretty calm despite the fact that there was just a huge fight just a couple dozen miles off the coastline of this place" Nichol stated as he looked over at the other people that were around going about their own business without a care in the world.

Sometimes Nichol wished that the attitude that people who lived in the PLANTs would be a bit more carefree like the people that they were watching going about their business. Although the people that lived on the PLANTs did their best to try and live normal lives, it was still difficult for them since there was always a certain amount of fear that each person had ever since the war began.

Given the massacre at Junius Seven and the N-Jammer retaliation strike on Earth, there were still a number of people that were still afraid that the Atlantic Federation and their Eurasian allies would somehow manage find a way around the N-Jammer problem and try to launch another nuclear strike on the PLANTs. After all the spies that they had within their ranks did say that they had been trying to find someway to cancel out N-Jammer interference but so far they had remained completely unsuccessful.

Dearka who had been lounging on a nearby bench let out a chuckle before replying to his squad mate with his regular nonchalant attitude.

"Well, why wouldn't they be? According to their government the problem has been taken care of and the two opposing forces have already moved on away from Orb territory so there isn't any real reason that they should be running like hell for the closest bomb shelter, it's not as if they're coming under attack by both the Earth Forces _and_ ZAFT"

The tanned pilot then looked out onto the harbor where the military ships were docked "I knew that it was a little too much to hope for that the Legged Ship would be out in the open for everyone to see, but with a ship of that class it wouldn't be easy to hide"

Athrun let out a sigh as he looked at the aerial view of the military/Morgenroete controlled harbor. It certainly wasn't going to be easy for them to get in that was for sure. Their phony ID's would only be able to get them into the general access area of regular personnel, not the classified top secret areas that they needed to get into.

"So what happens if the ship really was pushed out of the area like they said it was?" Dearka asked. Athrun shrugged knowing that was in fact a possibility and if it was true than there wasn't much that they could do about it.

"If the ship's here it's here, if it's not then it's not, what we need now is confirmation and since this harbor is controlled by both Morgenroete as well as Orb's navy it's got to be here if it's still in Orb territory" Athrun explained before continuing "But getting in there is going to be a challenge, our ID's only have standard access, we won't be able to get inside the restricted areas without causing a big fuss"

Yzak who had remained mostly silent the entire time grumbled out "This country is really starting to piss me off" Athrun rolled his eyes and decided that it would be best to just focus on the task at hand and try to find a way into the harbor without drawing any attention rather than listening to his teammate.

* * *

><p>-Izumi Attha's office-<p>

* * *

><p>After Kira and Flay had left in the morning following last night's dinner Kira's parents had left to the Orb Government building where Izumi Attha was currently waiting for them. Currently they were sitting directly in front of the Chief Representative with worried looks on their faces.<p>

They had heard of Kira meeting Cagalli when his son had told them about what had happened since that fateful day in Heliopolis and that was only which was more than bad than making friends with the Red Eyed Devil.

In Caridad and Haruma's eyes there was little worse than those who kill not out of duty to their country or for some other reason that most soldiers fought, but instead they fought only for cash. To them something like that was appalling. Human life should be treasured not wiped off the face of the earth for just a few measly credits.

"So what are we going to do? It would only destroy Kira if he was to discover the whole truth of the matter" asked Caridad sounding more than just a little worried.

Izumi Attha let out a sigh, he knew that it would be a horrible ordeal if Kira were to discover the entire truth in regards to his birth but even so, Orb's Chief Representative did wish that Kira would know the entire truth about the family that he never knew he had.

Izumi was never one for lying but as a politician he knew for a fact that sometimes it was almost a necessity in order to stay in one's current position and thus tried to keep as honest as he could with his family but in these troubled times even that was proving to be quite a challenge in itself.

"Even the truth about his sister?" Izumi asked a little reluctantly, over the years Izumi had been hoping to tell Cagalli when she was ready that she did in fact have a sibling, a twin to be precise but as of late he wondered if that would be a good idea.

Kira's mother shook her head "Even the smallest piece of information regarding the circumstances surrounding his birth could lead to him finding out the whole story about it and you know as well as I do that he'd never truly be the same if that happened to him" she explained.

"Although that might be the case the fact remains that the children have already found out about each other, even without them knowing about it" Izumi explained before continuing "It's almost as some higher force is at work here"

Haruma almost chuckled, it was just like Izumi to blame something that had odds as astronomical as this occurring because of fate. "Sir please don't try and blame this all on fate both of the children will suspect something if we let ourselves be disturbed by this" he suggested.

Izumi nodded before asking "By the way where is Kira right now anyways?"

"Apparently he had to go back to the naval base to finish his work on the Natural OS, after that he and his girlfriend would be heading out for a day on the town" he explained.

Izumi then nodded, he didn't like all this deception but at least this way both of the children would be so much more happier with their lives.

* * *

><p>-Orb, Marshall Islands-<p>

* * *

><p>Lacus lead the way around town to the spot where they would have lunch together while Nathan followed close behind her seeing as she was practically dragging him there. It seemed as though their friendly lunch together had turned into a fully fledged date. Nathan had to admit, the girl seemed very enthusiastic about their little date.<p>

Seeing as how a lot of people would end up recognizing her even though she was trying to continue staying anonymous Lacus had removed her hair pin and had put her long pink hair into a ponytail and put a pair of green contacts on right over her eyes so she would be much more difficult to recognize if one of her many fans ended up spotting her.

This would also allow the two of them to avoid any annoying instances with someone accidentally revealing who she was which would more than likely cause a mass gathering that would attempt to either try and take a photo op of her or ask for an autograph or something similar.

"So Lacus, where exactly are we going?" Nathan asked curiously as she continued to drag him around "You'll see soon enough" she said in what was clearly a very chipper tone. Under most circumstances Nathan seriously frowned upon being left in the dark about something but that was normally during a mission or something similar. In this case however, it was something that he didn't really mind.

Eventually the two of them arrived at their destination. It was a moderately sized restaurant with outdoor tables that all had large umbrellas perched over them to help protect the patrons from the sun or the rain if there was any. However the restaurant wasn't really what had grabbed him, it was the view that lay beyond the building that had managed to get almost all of his attention.

Just beyond the building was a perfect view of the bay area that lay beyond it. Given the sun's current position in the sky and the tide level in the bay it looked as though the sea itself was made of crystal by the way it was sparkling. Nathan had to admit he was pretty impressed by scenery of the place that Lacus had chosen for their little outing (he just wasn't able to bring himself to calling it a date).

The restaurant itself however was more like a café rather than some kind of a formal restaurant that the wealthy liked to go to just so they could show themselves and their dates off. The fact that she had decided not to take him to someplace like that almost made him sigh in relief.

The two of them sat down at one of the tables outside of the restaurant both Nathan and Lacus wanting to enjoy the fresh air and the beautiful day around them. After placing their orders for their food they talked with one another while they waited for their waiter to return with their food.

The instant that the waiter was a good distance away Nathan asked "Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?" Lacus then answered "Of course not, feel free to ask me whatever you want"

"So why exactly are you visiting reverend Malchio's orphanage? Because something tells me that if you were just here visiting an old friend of the family your father would want to come along with you as well"

However Lacus just shrugged "To be perfectly honest a few days ago my father told me that I was going to go to Orb for a while, he didn't tell me why only that it was very important that I stay there for a while, I think he wanted to keep me safe from something" that instantly perked Nathan's interest.

"Safe from what? You were in the heart of the PLANTs which, last time I checked surrounded by ZAFT which has always make thorough inspections of whoever tries enters their territory there's no safer place, unless…" Nathan trailed off not liking the possibilities that his mind had started to come up with. Lacus raised a brow wondering what it was he was going to say.

"Unless what?" she asked curiously.

Nathan sighed knowing that Lacus probably wasn't going to like this but he didn't want to lie to her.

"Unless, there's a threat coming from within the PLANTs themselves, tell me are there any really radical political groups in the PLANTs?" he asked already knowing that there probably were at least few of them.

Lacus thought about that for a moment, before the Bloody Valentines Day Tragedy there were only a handful of radicals in the PLANTs, each one more than fed up with the Earth Forces, mainly with the Atlantic Federation in particular given the heavy amount of discrimination as well as the outright bigotry towards Coordinators.

After the massacre at Junius Seven though, support for the radicals skyrocketed and they were slowly starting to sound more like terrorists with their views against the Atlantic Federation and Eurasia.

The biggest one however came from the group that was spearheaded by Patrick Zala who was once a very good friend of her father. However after the Bloody Valentines Day Tragedy his views became more and more extreme to the point that his political views were practically bordering on Nazism while her father still tended to be a bit more on the moderate side.

Lacus looked over at Nathan and said "Yes there are quite a few of them that have been very active as of late. Especially the ones that follow Patrick Zala" she explained before she realized what she had just said "Are you saying that my father may have sent me here to keep me safe from those groups?" she asked.

"I suppose that it's possible" Nathan answered before deciding that it would probably be for the best if he changed the subject after all he still had one question he still wanted answered. "How's your relationship with Athrun these days? The last I'd heard, you two were betrothed" the Raven pilot said curiously.

Lacus' normally upbeat demeanor changed into an almost saddened expression.

"We decided to break it off. The two of us…we just thought that it would be for the best that we broke off the engagement, we've just grown so far apart from one another and it simply wouldn't work out in the long run" she explained reluctantly . It was true recently they had called each other and after a very long discussion the two of them had decided that it would be for the best if they broke it off seeing as how the engagement was mostly arranged from the beginning.

Nathan looked down at the table now wishing that he hadn't brought something like her relationship up especially if the two of them had broken it off and began to apologize "I'm sorry, but I was just a little curious. I honestly didn't really mean anything by it" he said.

Lacus looked at him and her smile returned although Nathan could tell that it was clearly just a front "It's alright Nathan, you see…" Lacus trailed off for a moment before she continued "…Athrun and I both believed that it was probably for the best" she explained. Nathan could tell that the pop star was obviously holding something back but decided that it would probably be for the best if he didn't try and pursue the matter at the moment.

After that he decided to change the subject to something else "So how long has it been since you last visited Malchio's orphanage?" Nathan asked curiously. Lacus smiled at Nathan and replied "Almost two years, originally we were going to go out here to visit a year ago but weren't able to do so because of the war" she explained.

The Raven operator sighed. It seemed that almost no matter topic he tried to talk about, it always ended up coming back to the war that was going on. The two of them continued to converse for a while before their waiter finally returned with their food.

Once the two of them had finally finished eating their meal they headed out once again and this time they were walking near the bay. As they continued onwards Lacus became unsure as to where they were going "So where exactly are we headed?" she asked.

Nathan looked over at her and cocked an eyebrow "Actually I was going to ask you the same thing" he said before the two of them looked around and tried to see if there was anything that would catch either of their interests. Eventually the two settled on a walk down the bay for a while since that was what they were currently doing at the moment anyways.

As they continued to walk Lacus looked at directly at him with that same beautiful smile she had on a lot "Spending this time with you Nathan, it's been a lot of fun" she said before continuing "Do you think that we could do this again sometime?" she asked a little hopefully.

Nathan seemed very reluctant to answer for a moment before he finally responded "Yes I think that it would be very nice, unfortunately my shore leave is going to be ending tomorrow and I'll have to head back to the Archangel, so it will be unlikely that I'll be able to see you again for a while" he explained.

Lacus looked a bit disheartened at that "So after the Archangel makes it to wherever it's heading then what will you and the other Ravens end up doing?" she asked.

Nathan looked thoughtful for a moment or two before he answered "I'm not sure exactly, Hackett will probably hire a ship so that we can transport ourselves back to either Orb or the Raven's Nest, one of the two. Both of them are probably our top clients at the moment" Nathan explained.

This caused the pink haired pop star's spirits to rise a little, at least this way there was a fifty/fifty chance that the two of them could see each other again within a couple of weeks.

* * *

><p>-Morgenroete Mobile Suit testing area-<p>

* * *

><p>Inside one of the testing areas Mu La Flaga as well as Kira who had Birdie perched right on his shoulder as well as a number of engineers were overlooking one of the Astray prototypes that was currently running around the testing area. The pilot was making the machine do all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers that only a skilled mobile suit pilot would even be capable of performing.<p>

"This is so awesome!" exclaimed the test pilot, a young girl that went by the name of Asagi while she did made the mobile suit go into a boxing position and throw several jabs at thin air. Interestingly enough, all of the Astray prototypes were piloted by an all female squadron of seventeen year old girls.

A few hours earlier after Kira and Flay had returned to the Archangel, one of Morgenroete's engineers showed Kira one of the new mobile suits that were currently being built by Orb which were known as the Astrays. So far the Astray prototypes were only limited to a few dozen mobile suits at most and although the factories were beginning to crank them out at a great rate it was only a matter of time before they would become the neutral nation's most powerful defenders.

As Kira went over the programs of the machine's systems he saw that everything was in order and then downloaded all of his work onto a small disc before handing over his finally finished work to the chief engineer who was visibly impressed that such a young person could do something like that almost overnight.

"There, that should be everything that you need to mass produce Natural operating systems for your mobile suits" he explained. The chief engineer looked down at the disc for a moment before back up at Kira with a surprised look on her face "So everything that we need is on here" Kira nodded before adding "I also saved a copy of the information onto the main hard-drive of the Strike"

The engineers that had been listening were all pretty astonished that a sixteen year old kid was able to completely program a mobile suit's operating system all in just in over the course of several weeks (Note: Kira has been working on the OS ever since Heliopolis and all he had to do was make only a few minor adjustments to it).

Normally it took a whole team of technical specialists and high class equipment for something like this but this kid had managed to do it with only the Strike's operating computer and even though it was a pretty good piece of technology it wasn't necessarily made for creating a whole new operating system on the fly.

And yet that was exactly what Kira had managed to do. This had lead some of the other engineers to suspect that the boy was for all intents and purposes, some sort of a super genius by the rest of the staff.

Mu La Flaga then looked over at one of the engineers that was standing nearby "So now anyone can use a mobile suit right?" he asked more than just a little curiously. The engineer looked over at the pilot and guessed that the man was now a little more than just eager to try out a mobile suit. "In simpler terms yes, now it's possible for any Natural to pilot a mobile suit if it has the right operating system. May I ask why you're so curious?"

"Ah, no reason, I was just wondering that's all" Mu explained although for a lot of people it was obvious. To be able to pilot the same kind of machines that he had been forced to fight against for the past year was very appealing to a lot of Earth Forces pilots, himself included. Mu and Kira continued to watch the Astray practice its maneuvers until they were finally finished.

Once the Astray pilot had finished with the tests that the Morgenroete engineers had needed her to perform, Kira and Mu headed back towards the Strike where they would upload the new operating system into the Strike.

As they walked over to where the Strike was currently being serviced Mu looked over at Kira and asked "So how was bringing your girlfriend home to meet your parents?" he asked causing Kira to think back on the moment before he replied "It was okay I guess" before asking "Why?"

Mu simply shrugged "Just curious, sometimes bringing a girl back to meet the parents can be kind of stressful for both parties involved, especially in the situation that you're currently in, speaking of which how did they take you staying aboard the Archangel?" he asked.

Kira sighed remembering what had happened during dinner. When they asked both of them as to whether or not that he was coming back home Kira explained that both of them had volunteered their services to the Earth Forces and as such were stuck there until the war ended. Then they would more than likely return home. Although both of Kira's parents tried to sound supportive even an idiot could tell that they were uneasy with letting their only child stay on board what would most likely end up as a frontline warship which would inevitably go into battle.

The young Coordinator proceeded to explain what had happened while he and Flay were at dinner with his family to the commander. After Kira had finished Mu just let out a small chuckle "Don't worry Kira, they're just trying to look out for you, that's all" he explained before he began to change directions and head towards the Archangel where he was hoping that Murrue wouldn't mind going out on the town for a while.

Kira however climbed in the Strike's cockpit to input the new OS into the Strike's primary systems. Carefully Kira placed the disk into the Strike's onboard computer and began the uploading sequence which would take the computer a number of minutes to finish uploading the necessary data.

As the pilot of the Strike waited for the new OS to be fully integrated into the Strike, Birdie took off from its perch atop Kira's shoulder and began to fly towards the exit of the hanger. Not wanting the robotic bird to get away from him Kira got up off of the seat and began to chase after the machine.

* * *

><p>-Morgenroete facility exterior-<p>

* * *

><p>Athrun along with the rest of his team found themselves in a bit of a bind. They had made it past the first couple of security checkpoints without attracting any suspicion thanks to their counterfeit ID cards. But now they were unable to progress any further without top secret access which the intelligence operatives were simply unable to forge due to the highly advanced security systems that were in place.<p>

As the group tried to figure out what their next move should be to get inside the facility Athrun thought that he faintly heard a high pitched "Birdie" coming from overhead. Athrun looked up and saw a small mechanical bird flying around in the air. The thing chirped "Birdie" once again before Athrun put his arm up to his chest and out a little inviting the bird to land on his arm. Sure enough the mechanical bird swooped down with all the grace of an actual bird and perched itself on Athrun's hand.

Almost immediately after Birdie had finished landing the rest of Athrun's team gathered around the machine none having ever seen a machine quite like that before in their lives. "That thing is so lifelike" Nichol noted to himself. Athrun then heard a familiar voice coming from beyond the security fence "Birdie!" Athrun looked up from his hand where the mechanical bird had been perching to that of the person that was looking for it.

Athrun instantly recognized the individual as Kira and judging by the way that Kira was looking at him it was vice versa. Slowly Athrun made his way towards the security fence where his childhood friend was behind. In just a few moments they were standing directly in front of each other "This yours?" Athrun asked gesturing to the bird.

"Yeah it is thanks" said Kira before the bird hopped off of Athrun's arm and flew onto Kira's shoulder. Athrun started to walk away before he heard Kira speak up again

"An old friend gave it to me, it's a very important gift from a valuable friend" he explained. Athrun looked over at Kira "I'm sure that he appreciates your feelings on the matter" he said before he continued to walk away to rejoin the rest of his team while Kira headed back to the Morgenroete hanger.

To be continued.


	24. A Great Loss

Armored Seed

Chapter 24

A Great Loss

* * *

><p>AN: here's a word of warning for those of you reading this, although this chapter starts out a little lighthearted, be forewarned that it will get _very_ dark and there will be character deaths.

Also if you're going to review my story could you _please_ state the reasons as to _why_ you love/hate the chapter rather than just that you love/hate it it's annoying when someone doesn't give any kind of feedback, I welcome constructive criticism as well as any opinions on how my work on this story could improve.

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><p>-Archangel, Bridge-<p>

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><p>Captain Hackett looked out the two foot thick reinforced glass window on the bridge and out at the ocean that was around them while he thought of certain past events. Shortly after the Archangel had entered the Marshall Islands of Orb Hackett had quickly contacted one of his business associates and asked for a certain package to be delivered to the Archangel before it resumed its mission a few days later.<p>

The package arrived less than two days after he ordered it to be shipped. Of course he had to smooth things out a bit with some of the Morgenroete people but he got the package inside the Archangel. As it turned out the package was captain Hackett's personal armored core which had been in storage for well over a year now, the AC was known as the Jaguar.

The Jaguar is a light armored core that favors speed and maneuverability over weapons and armor. Its armament includes and automatic shotgun in its right hand along with a wrist mounted energy blade. The left arm uses a beam rifle and an energy shield. Both of the Jaguar's shoulders mount short range rocket pods.

The reason that Hackett had brought aboard the Jaguar was a simple one, they needed at least one more AC to be one hundred percent combat effective again seeing as how the Beta was now completely out of commission. Murdoch said that it would be a month at the earliest before the Beta could be back in fighting condition again.

This was something that seriously irritated Flay who, ever since requesting to be trained how to pilot an armored core had transformed from a pampered little brat into a fairly competent pilot. It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to go into combat in the foreseeable future. A prospect that hadn't exactly pleased the young girl but she was able to accept the fact that she definitely wouldn't be able to go out into combat for a while.

Before leaving the Marshall Islands they had been told that Cagalli as well as Kisaka would be staying back in Orb territory. It was assumed by most of the crew members that her father didn't really want her onboard the Archangel anymore since it was being pursued by ZAFT forces. Seeing as how that was indeed the case combat between the Archangel and whatever ZAFT was intent on throwing at them seemed to be inevitable considering how far they had chased them since Heliopolis.

Once the Archangel had left Orb's territory, captain Murrue had ordered that a number of patrols had to be sent out immediately in order to make sure that they wouldn't end up walking straight into an ambush. At the current moment, Cross, Kira and Li were already out there on patrol and their shift would end in about one hours time before the next patrol group would be sent out.

So far it appeared that there wasn't anything in their immediate vicinity but just because there wasn't anything that they could see on their sensors didn't mean that there wasn't anything else that was out there. After all their thermal detection units could only detect heat and due to the N-Jammers in the area the range had made their sensors usefulness very limited.

Hackett looked out past the bridge and over at the open ocean as well as the islands that dotted much of the landscape. Each of the islands were completely covered in large thick trees that were more than large enough to hide a crouching or prone armored core or mobile suit. There were simply too many places right now for their enemy to hide for his liking.

The Raven captain looked down at his watch and saw that it was almost time for the patrol to return in and he'd have to get to the hanger pronto if he was going to take part in the next patrol group. As he went to the hanger he remembered everyone's expressions when he told them that he'd be going out into combat again.

Each and every one of them were completely stunned. The Archangel crew more so than the others since they were still unaware that Hackett had actually piloted armored cores many times before. It took all of Hackett's willpower not to burst out laughing at everyone's expressions.

The first one that was to make a protest about this was Raphael who quickly made it known that it was a very bad idea that the captain was considering going back into combat again. After all it had been over four and a half years since the man even stepped into a cockpit which was when the Black Skulls was still just a small Raven unit that hadn't even acquired its own ship yet.

However Hackett waved off Raphael's concerns about how long it had been since he had piloted the Jaguar and that he may very well not be at the top of his game when the combat started.

Hackett proceeded to explain that unlearning how to pilot an armored core wasn't something that could be done so easily and had then explained that he was going into combat, period. This ended the debate seeing as how Murrue saw no real reason that Hackett couldn't go out and fight since they were already down one machine.

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><p>Outside the Archangel Kira and the others were still out on their patrol routes ahead of the ship. So far they hadn't seen anything that was of note and soon their shift would end and the next patrol would soon be sent out. Kira sincerely hoped that he wouldn't have to end up fighting Athrun again before this was all over.<p>

Sure it had been over a couple of weeks since they had last fought each other back in space when the Archangel was trying to reach the Atlantic Federation's headquarters back on earth but Kira had spoken to him just the other day right outside of the Morgenroete building. It was obvious to Kira that that if ZAFT was going to make another attempt at destroying the Archangel it was pretty obvious that Athrun would be part of the group that would be trying to destroy the ship that they had been pursuing for the last several weeks.

But that wasn't the only reason that Kira was worried. After Tolle had gotten back from spending time with his parents he revealed that he had managed to score moderately well on the Skygrasper simulator courses. This meant that he was now a pilot for the secondary Skygrasper unit which Murdoch and the other engineers aboard the archangel had finally managed to finish up repairs on after Cagalli had managed to crash it into that island.

Athrun and the other pilots of the stolen prototypes were quite obviously skilled pilots and the Hydras were for the most part comprised of cold blooded killers who were just as skilled as Athrun and his team if not more so. There was also the fact that Tolle didn't have any real experience in piloting outside the simulation unit.

This put Kira's friend in a definite disadvantage in combat which was made even worse by the fact that he could only pilot a Skygrasper right now, and unless you had an incredible amount of experience in piloting it, you were little more than an annoyance in the face of a mobile suit. Especially the stolen Gundams.

The Strike was closing in on the hanger and Kira slowed the Strike's descent. After all it was no use crashing right into the ship that had been finished being repaired just the other day. Once Kira finally made it onto the hanger floor he piloted the Strike over to the docking clamp in the hanger while Cross and Li did the same.

After Kira exited the Strike, he headed down to the main floor of the hanger where the next patrol group was getting into their AC's. The individual that grabbed his attention the most was captain Hackett who was in a Black Skulls pilot suit. Kira began to wonder to himself as to the reason as to why it was that Hackett was even down here in a pilot suit. As if sensing his question Adam who oddly enough wasn't with his best friend/drinking buddy at the moment spoke up

"I know what you're thinking Kira, you're wondering why Hackett's down here instead of on the bridge like he usually is. Well, believe it or not, when Hackett started this whole Raven company out he liked to lead from the front but when we got a ship he started to direct things from there because it would be easier for him to relay orders and shit like that. Hell that lunatic of a pilot still enjoyed royally kicking our asses in the simulators though, back when we were still a bunch of rookies" he explained.

"Last I checked I've still managed to kick your sorry ass even when you became more experienced and who's a lunatic now?" Hackett said from right behind the two pilots. In less than an instant Adam had managed to turn himself around and give the captain the sharpest salute Kira had ever seen him give anyone "Uh, sir I'm sorry I uh didn't know you were listening!" he said nervously before continuing "And who said anything about a lunatic I never heard anyone say that!"

The captain narrowed his at the two of them for a good second and a half before he stopped and let out a small chuckle "Calm down son, I'll just pretend you didn't say anything but for future reference, I suggest that you _don't_ make those kinds of comments about people when they're still in the same room as you are" he suggested before heading towards his AC.

After Adam was sure that Hackett was finally out of earshot he let out a sigh of relief "Whew, thank god for a second I thought that he would assign me latrine duty or something" he muttered before he headed out of the hanger. Just a few seconds later Kira joined the pilot in heading towards the exit of the hanger. After a long patrol Kira had every intention on going to go and see what it was that Flay was currently doing.

Since Flay wouldn't be able to help in combat for a while she decided to make herself useful by working in the infirmary with Carmen. Eventually Kira came upon the infirmary and walked inside to see Flay and Carmen conversing with one another since there was little else to do seeing as how there wasn't a single crewmember that needed any medical attention. The two were actually in a conversation about Carmen's surrogate little brother Nathan in fact.

"So you were okay with Nathan leaving the ship for several days without even telling you?" Flay asked while Carmen just let out a small chuckle. "Look I may be very protective of that reckless maniac but not to the point of smothering, well, most of the time anyways. And besides he asked the captain for permission for some time off where he goes during shore leave isn't really my concern unless of course it's a bar or a strip club or a combination of the two" she explained.

Carmen then remembered the time that Adam and Drake had almost dragged Nathan to somewhere similar that after his very first mission with the Black Skulls. During that time Nathan was still for the most part pretty much innocent and of course had never been to a strip club before. Carmen had found out about Adam and Drake's plans and had managed to quickly put a stop to it before Nathan could leave the ship and have the rest of his innocence completely destroyed by the two idiots when the Zeus was docked at the Raven's Nest.

Hell Carmen had come dangerously close to castrating the pair of idiots that had almost took Nathan to a strip club when he was only _fifteen_! Granted in the Raven's Nest it was legal (No surprise there considering that almost everything there is legal) for someone that was fifteen and over to go to a strip club but still he was still to young to go somewhere like that in her opinion.

The two of them then noticed that Kira had been waiting in the room. Upon seeing her boyfriend, Flay immediately gave a warm smile to Kira "It's great to see you Kira, how was your patrol?" she asked.

"There wasn't anyone out there if that's what you mean" Kira was really thankful for that, he knew that Athrun would still be coming after him. Originally Kira had hoped that ZAFT had believed the cover story that the Archangel had been driven away from their lands and were currently searching elsewhere but Kira had quickly discarded that hope after he had managed to run into Athrun back at the Marshall Islands on Orb.

Kira knew that it was only a matter of time before he and Athrun would have to fight again. The thought of that almost made him shudder. He didn't want to end up killing him like he did Andy back in that desert. Kira was then broken out of his thoughts by Flay who was now looking at him with a concerned expression on her face "Kira are you alright you seem a little distant" she said worriedly.

The young Coordinator then let out a sigh, he may as well tell her "Almost everyone else here is saying how it's only a matter of time before we go into combat with ZAFT and I really don't want to have to end up fighting Athrun again" Kira explained sounding a little depressed. Flay gave her boyfriend a sympathetic look and although she thought that it was most likely an inevitable that Kira would end up facing his childhood friend again she decided that it would probably be best if she didn't mention that possibility.

"Well if we do end up fighting ZAFT again I'm sure that you'll do the right thing" she said knowing that he still felt guilty about failing those people in that shuttle during the Archangel's descent to Earth, having to watch that resistance fighter Ahmed be given a mercy killing. And then of course there was being forced to kill Andrew Waltfield, a guy who, under much different circumstances, Kira would have considered to be a good friend.

"I hope so, I really do" said Kira worriedly.

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><p>-ZAFT Command Sub-<p>

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><p>Athrun along with the rest of his team including the Hydras were now waiting at the launch tubes. They were almost within striking distance of the Legged Ship and this time they were not going to pull out until that ship and it's cargo were nothing but a pile of molten slag.<p>

Out of all of the pilots waiting to launch Yzak was being the most impatient. He was a more than just a little eager for revenge against the Strike's pilot for the 'humiliation' that he had endured at the mobile suit's pilot's hands. However Yzak would have to be patient and not rush off in an attempt to get revenge on the one that had damaged his face, he'd only get himself killed just like that drug addict from the Hydra team did.

Then there was the Red Eyed Devil to consider. Athrun remembered how commander Lockhart had remarked on how Yzak was basically a dead man walking since the Red Eyed Devil was now taking a personal interest in his demise. Athrun had read the reports about Nathan Fletcher and knew full well just how ruthless the man could be when he was in pursuit of a goal, especially when that goal involved someone getting killed.

With how Yzak had been acting lately with his over eagerness to crush the Legged Ship and the Strike Athrun was seriously tempted to order him to sit this battle out. Despite his unease about letting Yzak on the mission Athrun needed as many soldiers as he could get right now if they were to have any hope of destroying that ship.

Another problem he had was with commander Lockhart. The last time he and Athrun had spoken with one another was when the guy had told him that not only was he glad that that drug addict of a pilot O'Connor was dead but that also Lockhart had been contemplating ways to kill off one of his own subordinates.

This had caused the small amount of trust that Athrun had in the man to be seriously cracked and was bordering on shattering. Since then Athrun had started to keep a much closer eye on the Raven commander.

After all, if Lockhart could so casually speak about killing one of his own men then it wouldn't all that farfetched that he would try and kill Athrun or even some of his comrades if it suited his purposes. Athrun's suspicions were only confirmed when he had looked up the Hydras unit history on official military records. Apparently they used to be a much larger force with their own command ship that was similar to the Zeus which had been scuttled back out in space.

However a little less than a year ago they had suffered several crushing defeats at the hands of the Black Skulls and right before Lockhart had assumed command of the Raven unit the original leader a guy who went by the name of colonel Brian Quinn had vanished under "mysterious" circumstances.

After that had occurred the Hydras started to get even less trustworthy in their work for their various employers. Once when the Hydras were working for a guerilla group in South America they turned on their bosses when the Atlantic Federation offered them almost five times that which they were originally being paid.

Upon reading about this Athrun immediately contacted commander Le Creuset who was still helping to prepare for operation Spit Break. Normally Athrun would have waited to contact the commander considering that it was late in the part of the world that he was in but under the circumstances Athrun thought that it would be for the best to get some kind of confirmation from his commander on whether or not he and the rest of the team would get backstabbed at some point.

Despite the time difference as to where Le Creuset immediately answered and seemed pretty unbothered by Athrun's need for answers regarding the Ravens that were working for them at the moment. The masked commander proceeded to explain that the Hydras were already being paid an almost exorbitant sum for their services.

Le Creuset had also drove in the point that commander Lockhart wouldn't dare to violate such an arrangement since they would be hunted down and terminated if they did. Unfortunately this didn't really help Athrun regain the little trust that he had in the Hydras but at least now he was willing to trust them right up until the mission was finished.

Athrun was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the sub's captain announce over the communication channels that they were now within striking distance of the Legged Ship. The first ones up on the sub's underwater launching units was Athrun, Nichol and Yzak. Lockhart's men would be on the second group out. This time thanks to the abundance of islands in the area Katrina would be able to launch in her unit and use one of the nearby islands as cover while she used her heavy ordinance.

Ordinarily for heavy class AC's they were restricted to land and (if they had been outfitted for it) space warfare since they were unable to use their thrusters for long periods of time like the medium and light classes were. And if the thrusters were to run out of power over large bodies of water such as an ocean than they would sink until either their thrusters recharged or until the pressure had finally managed to crush the pilot that was inside the AC. Since there were a large amount of islands in the area however the possibility of sinking into the ocean had been reduced significantly.

Besides they would need as much artillery support as they could get their hands on if they were to take out the Legged Ship. Athrun was brought out of his thoughts when the sub started to shake a little signaling that it was about to head straight for the surface. Athrun piloted the Aegis onto the Guul atmospheric subflight unit located in the vertical launch tube and less than three seconds later the hatch opened up and his Aegis flew upwards into the skies.

This time they weren't going to allow the Legged Ship to get away from them, this time they were going to finish things.

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><p>-Archangel, Hanger bay-<p>

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><p>The very second that Nathan heard the alarm klaxons going off he immediately stopped reading one of his books in his quarters and headed straight for the hanger bay. The ones that were out on patrol were going to need all the support that they could get if they wanted to stay alive. Once he got to the hanger he saw that the rest of the pilots in the Archangel had the same idea that he did.<p>

Nathan quickly got into the Lucifer and powered up the armored core's systems and once that was done he waited for the engineers to clear the area so that he could make his way to the launching unit. The instant that the engineers had finally gotten out of the way the Lucifer marched straight onto the launcher.

"This is lieutenant Nathan Fletcher in the Lucifer, I'm ready to launch" he announced to Mir who would be working as the communications officer for this battle. "Board is green, lieutenant you are clear for launch" seconds later the Lucifer was catapulted out of the launching unit via magnetic force from the launcher and sent out into the battlefield that was unfolding around the ship.

The instant that the Lucifer was outside of the ship he saw the Hydras which was to be expected along with the Aegis as well as the other three prototypes that Nathan had hoped had been destroyed along with their pilots during the last engagement. Nathan's blood began to boil once again at the sight of the Duel which as if its mere presence mocked him at his inability to kill the pilot that was inside the machine.

However this time Nathan intended on doing something that would be a little more certain this time. If he could somehow corner the Duel then he could power up his beam rifle to the point where it could pierce straight through both the assault shroud as well as the PS armor in just one shot. But if the simulations that he had run several times over were accurate than Nathan's beam rifle along with half of the arm that was holding it would both melt due to the excess amount of heat that the cooling units built into the weapon would simply be unable to handle.

That one excessive shot from the beam rifle that he'd be using would also have to be one that he would be sure wouldn't miss. After all after the weapon and the rest of the arm had finished melting he'd only have the shoulder mounted missile launchers which would be nearly useless against the stolen Gundams but would prove to be relatively adequate against the Hydras. The only weapon that would be able to do much damage against phase shift armor at that point would be his energy blade which would limit him to short range combat only.

Nathan targeted the Duel who was currently trying to go after the Strike. The discharge from the Duel's beam rifle came straight for the Strike but the shots weren't timed and seemed to be fired without even aiming at the target. The pilot of the Duel seemed to be consumed by anger at his intended target and thus his judgment was much more flawed at the moment which would make him an easier kill at that point.

The Lucifer began to head for the Duel but before he could even make it a few dozen meters towards his intended target one of the Hydra AC's, the Stinger if he remembered the name of the unit correctly opened fire with its newest shoulder mounted armament. A long range artillery launcher. The Lucifer quickly engaged the unit's side thrusters which allowed Nathan to sidestep the attack but the one that was piloting the Stinger was pretty determined in her shooting.

The shell that had been fired from the artillery launcher just barely missed its intended target and instead hit the ocean a couple hundred meters behind the Lucifer but the artillery round came dangerously close to hitting the Archangel. Nathan's own personal need for justice would have to wait for the moment as the Archangel could potentially end up taking a large amount of damage from the artillery shells that were being fired by the Stinger.

Nathan flipped a switch on his command unit which caused the mid range missile launchers on both of the shoulders to unfold from their resting places. After a few moments of waiting for the targeting system on his armored core to get a good lock onto the target Nathan fired both of the shoulder mounted missile launchers, which sent half a dozen missiles speeding towards the target. It took less than a second for the Stinger's pilot to react to the missiles that were heading straight for her.

The bulky armored core activated its thrusters and launched a series of flares up into the sky in an attempt to get the missiles to go after them instead of the Stinger. Four of the six missiles veered off course and headed for the flares while the other ones still continued on course towards the intended target. The missiles that impacted the Stinger did a moderate amount of damage the unit's incredibly thick armor but the mid range missiles had managed to turn the artillery launcher into nothing but a heavily deformed piece of metal.

It was obvious that the weapon would be impossible to fire in that kind of condition and the Stinger began to fall back. Satisfied that one of the main threats to the Archangel had been at least partially neutralized Nathan turned his attention to the Duel which was currently firing off rounds at Mu's Skygrasper with its beam rifle. Mu had previously been making strafing runs on the mobile suit with the Agni cannon.

This time things would be different. This time the pilot of the Duel wouldn't make it out of this engagement alive. Nathan would make sure of that

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><p>"Eat this you little bastard!" Drake yelled from his perch on top of the Archangel as his armored core fired its beam cannons at the Reaver which for the past minute and a half had been attempting to try and do some damage to the Archangel with its beam rifle and mid range missiles. However due to the constant barrage of the Archangel's igelstellung CIW rounds as well as Drake's beam cannons kept the enemy armored core from getting off a decent shot at the ship.<p>

This alone was seriously frustrating Faulkner as he hadn't landed a single shot from his handheld weapons that did anything other than singe the paintjob. The missiles that were launched from the Reaver's shoulder mounted launchers were almost always shot down by either the igelstellungs or if the guns failed to hit their mark then the shoulder mounted gattling guns on the Panzer definitely would.

As Faulkner continued to open fire with his AC's machine gun at the igelstellung turrets damaging a handful of them but for the most part Faulkner was too busy trying to avoid getting hit that he wasn't able to do much in the way of damage to the other portions of the ship or the AC that was currently perched on top of it.

Seeing the little amount of progress that he had been making on his attempt to damage the Archangel and how each shot that came from the Panzer was getting much closer to hitting him each time Faulkner peeled off and started to head back towards a battle where the odds would be more in his favor. "Don't run, don't run I'm not gonna hurt you! I just want to blow you to smithereens!" yelled Drake not moving the Panzer off of the Archangel's hull to chase after the Reaver since he did not want to risk falling into the ocean. The Panzer continued to fire at the Reaver until it was out of range.

Drake continued to yell into the communications unit demanding that the pilot of the Reaver come back and fight.

However Hauptman ignored the yells and demands coming from his enemy and instead continued to head back towards the area his commanding officer was currently fighting alongside the Buster and the Blitz in an attempt to take out some of the Archangel's escorts. They were currently fighting one of the Skygraspers which was equipped with the Agni energy cannon, the Fury, the White Knight and astonishingly enough considering that he hadn't seen that armored core in over a year, the Jaguar. Hauptman felt that it would probably be for the best if he was to help even up the odds a little bit more and joined the dogfight.

As Faulkner joined his fellow Hydras and their temporary bosses in the fighting the White Knight and Commander Lockhart's AC, the Ares were dueling each other in a way that almost reminded Faulkner of how knights would go at one another in a duel or some such thing. The two of them were striking at each other with their energy blades but neither were able to score any blows since both of them either parried or sidestepped the attack.

Faulkner knew that if Lockhart needed his assistance in this little duel of his then he would ask for it. Instead he headed over to where the Buster and the Blitz were currently fighting and decided that it would be best to assist them in their endeavor. The Reaver opened fire directly at the Fury with its assault rifle. The rounds from the weapon either penetrated the arm unit of the machine or it just ricocheted off of the Fury's hull.

The Fury didn't remain idle while the Reaver continued to fire round after round from the machine gun at it. Instead Li returned fire with her shoulder mounted beam cannon which quickly charged before firing off a few shots at the Reaver which was able to sidestep most of the rounds but one of them at least managed to hit the left shoulder of the Reaver damaging the arm motor that allowed the pilot control the machine's left arm.

Since the shoulder had been damaged the Reaver's pilot would have a much more difficult time when aiming the Reaver's assault rifle. However there was a small silver lining to this as he was still able to use the beam rifle and the shoulder mounted missiles which be of some help to him while he was in combat.

As the Fury and the Reaver continued to fight one another, the Buster opened fire at the Jaguar with it's gun launcher and high output energy rifle. Due to the Hackett's personal preference to high speed maneuverability over heavy armor in combat he almost had high speed maneuverability thruster built into the Jaguar and only kept a minimum amount of armor on the machine.

Therefore Hackett was able to dodge each and every shot that had been fired at him much to the pilot of the Buster's frustration. Dearka nearly punched the screen out of pure frustration as the targeting computers couldn't get a decent lock on the Jaguar for him to fire, the damned AC was simply too fast for him. Sometimes it would hover in one spot for a few seconds before flying off in a completely different direction than the one that Dearka had thought that it was going in.

As if that wasn't enough every time that it did stop moving around like an annoying insect it fired off a few rounds from its shotgun. That weapon wasn't able to do any threatening damage to the Buster's PS armor which gave Dearka the impression that the guy either didn't know what he was dealing with and would just continue to pound on the Buster's PS armor until it ran out of usable power or the asshole was trying to mess with him. Given how much the Black Skulls had been fighting with them it was most likely the latter.

Despite hating how this individual was probably underestimating him Dearka refused to let himself be overcome by anger like Yzak would and instead decided that it would be best to try and either find a way around the Jaguar's superior maneuverability or simply disengage and let one of the Hydras deal with it.

As the Jaguar attempted to maneuver again Dearka attempted to try and predict the movements that it had been making but it was difficult at best. Whatever this guy was doing he was going into random directions there was no pattern to any of his movements. Instead the bastard just seemed to be winging it. Each time the Jaguar went in random directions to throw Dearka off.

Earlier in the fight Nichol and Dearka had noticed how badly Yzak was doing up against the Red Eyed Devil and since Athrun was still preoccupied with the Strike and their little fight had started to grow in intensity, hell one of the Aegis' hands had been neatly sliced off at the wrist joint by the Strike's beam saber but other than that Athrun was still able to relatively hold his own against the Strike. Nichol of course felt conflicted, he didn't want to leave Yzak out there on his own and wanted to help his compatriot but he also didn't want to leave Dearka to fend for himself either.

The Blitz opened fire at the Jaguar with its shield mounted beam rifle sending three streaks of directed energy at the Jaguar. Each of the three shots had of course failed to hit the intended target and instead hit nothing but air. The Blitz looked like it was about to fire off another volley with its beam rifle but before it could do so the pilot of the Blitz heard Dearka's voice on the communications channel "Nichol you go and back Yzak up right now!" he ordered.

Nichol started to protest, not out of disrespect but he didn't want to leave his comrade to fend for himself "But Dearka I-" he started but he wasn't even able to finish his sentence before the tanned pilot yelled out "Yzak needs more help than me right now and you're the best chance he's got!" he yelled. Nichol said nothing but he pulled back as he was ordered and headed straight for Yzak's current position.

Once Nichol was a safe distance away Dearka flipped a switch on his command console, enough was enough. Unlike Yzak, Dearka was smart enough to know when to back out of a fight that he probably wasn't going to be able to win. Two seconds later the rocket pods that were mounted right on the Buster began to unfold and the twelve rockets contained within them flew outwards in all directions.

Dearka knew that the missiles probably wouldn't hit the Jaguar but it would cause it to devote its time to dodging the attacks rather than opening fire on him. Plus this would also get Dearka a bit of breathing room seeing as how the Jaguar's taunting little attacks were becoming very irritating and were preventing him from getting a good shot at either the Legged Ship or the AC that was currently hounding him.

The missiles spread out and of course the Jaguar maneuvered away from them just as Dearka had hoped which allowed him to fall back a bit on the guul that his Gundam was currently perched on top of. Unfortunately Dearka's relief soon turned to horror as the Jaguar came straight at him with its energy blade alight "Alright boy you've been a bit interesting for a while but now I'm going to have to take you down!" the enemy pilot exclaimed as the AC's left arm put itself in front of the rest of the machine.

Not hesitating for even a second Dearka opened fire with the gun launcher and energy rifle. This time the Jaguar's pilot didn't even bother to try and dodge the attack instead both of the attacks connected the Jaguar's arm mounted energy shield which deflected the shots being thrown at the armored core. As the armored core got closer Dearka continued to open fire in a much more panicked fashion, his shots either going wild and missing or hitting the shield that the Jaguar was using.

Eventually the Jaguar got close enough to slice the guul that Dearka was using to keep his Gundam in the air in half. And just like last time this caused the Buster to fall to the ground like a giant rock. However this time the Gundam didn't fall into the water, instead it hit one of the nearby islands.

Once the Buster hit the ground its armor changed from its normal tan color to a dull grey and dark blue. This signified that the PS armor was now completely out of power and he was now completely helpless since the weapons that he was using also drew on the same energy that the PS armor did and since it was out so were his weapons.

If he still had ammo for his rocket launchers however he could have used those but since he didn't it was a completely pointless thought to try and use it. As he sat inside the Buster Dearka cursed to himself while wondering what the hell the engineers who created this thing had been thinking when they decided to _not_ give the Buster any kind of close combat weaponry for backup weapons when they were designing it.

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><p>The Duel barely managed to evade another five shots from the Lucifer's beam rifle but before Yzak could respond in kind the Lucifer unleashed another volley of beam rifle discharge from his weapon. The Red Eyed Devil wasn't giving Yzak any breathing room whatsoever.<p>

Yzak was barely able to dodge some of the more lethal strikes that originated from the armored core's beam rifle and mid range missile launchers that it was armed with but still some of the rounds got through and the damage on Yzak's assault shroud unit was really starting to add up. The additional armor wasn't like PS armor that was beneath the assault shroud and so the beam rifle rounds along with the missiles were giving the assault shroud quite a bit of damage.

Early in the fighting the Lucifer had managed to skillfully blow off the rocket pod launcher and the rail gun attachments off of the shoulders of the Duel before Yzak even realized what had happened. It was clear that this pilot had analyzed the strengths and weakness of the Duel for a while now.

This left Yzak with the Duel's forehead mounted CIWs, two beam sabers and of course the Duel's beam rifle. The hand held weapon's underslung grenade launcher had already expended its one and only shot at the attacking armored core much earlier in the fight which had only managed to graze the target's shoulder and although it was able to tear off a small portion of the armor when it fired. However it wasn't enough of a direct hit for the grenade to have exploded like Yzak had originally hoped that it would.

The Lucifer continued to found away at Yzak's assault shroud with its missiles and beam rifle. Yzak soon found himself unable to properly counter any of the attacks that were still being thrown at him. As the battle continued Yzak received an audio only transmission from the Lucifer's pilot.

"This time's going to be different you son of a whore, this time after I destroy that thing, I'm going to go into that machine's cockpit and pull whatever's left of you out and torch your charred remains until nothing's left but ashes just so that I can make sure that you actually stay _dead_ this time!" the Red Eyed Devil yelled seconds prior to letting out a roar of righteous fury that was unlike anything that Yzak had ever heard before in his entire life.

The armored core fired its beam rifle again and again at the Duel. Each and every shot from the Lucifer's directed energy weapon did a significant amount of damage to the assault shroud that the Duel had been equipped with. Despite all of the damage that the machine was doing to the Duel it didn't seem to be weakening quickly enough for Nathan's taste. It looked as though he may actually have to end up attempting that beam rifle overcharge maneuver in combat after all.

Before Nathan could fire off another volley of directed energy a new contact appeared close by the Duel. It was the Blitz but before Nathan could aim his beam weapon at the new foe, the Blitz quickly fired its Gleipnir anchor at him. Acting purely on battlefield instinct Nathan side stepped the attack just in the nick of time before his AC could have been impaled by the weapon. Before the Blitz could retrieve the Gleipnir via the line it was attached to Nathan activated the Lucifer's energy blade and sliced the line off preventing the anchor from being retrieved.

The Red Eyed Devil was about to turn his attention back to the Duel but it appeared as though the Blitz still wasn't out of the fight just yet. The Blitz quickly fired off all three of its lancer darts at its opponent. Nathan either sidestepped the attack or simply just parried the projectiles before he charged the Blitz with his energy blade activated. At first the pilot of the Blitz attempted to fight back with its shield mounted beam rifle but the shots went wild due to the fact that the pilot of the stolen Gundam was probably in a panic and wasn't able to aim as straight as he had hoped.

Nathan managed to dodge the beam rifle fire with relative ease and once he was close enough sliced the shield that held all of Nichol's remaining weapons clean off at the elbow. Now that the Blitz was weaponless and therefore not much of a threat, Nathan turned back to the Duel whose pilot had managed to get a slightly better distance away from the Lucifer. That bastard wasn't getting away that easily. Nathan engaged the Strike's thrusters and got a bit closer to the target and punched in several commands on his command console.

The a good portion of the AC's power flowed into the beam rifle that it was carrying causing the weapon barrel to start to glow as though it was anticipating the pulling of the trigger so that it could send the pilot of the Duel straight into hell where he belonged. Upon getting close enough to where Nathan thought he would be able to pull off a decent shot off without missing or not doing enough damage.

The armored core's weapon fired and an enormous beam of light flashed from the weapon's barrel before an abnormally sized discharge fired from the weapon. The sheer size was actually comparable to when the Panzer fired off its beam bazookas.

Mere seconds before the shot was able to connect however the now one armed Blitz slammed into the Duel sending it away from the directed energy fire but before the Blitz could evade the attack as well it was completely engulfed by the blast. As the Blitz became encompassed by the attack and soon after the overcharged weapon had finished its one shot only the legs and part of the lower torso of the Blitz remained.

The heat that was generated from the beam rifle that the Lucifer was holding caused the weapon to begin to melt the instant that it started to fire, the weapon's internal heat dampening units simply couldn't handle the excess amount of heat being generated by the overcharged weapon. After only a few seconds the weapon was little more than a white hot molten piece of slag and had melted through the armored mechanical hand that was holding it.

The mangled and twisted beam rifle then hit the ground with a loud boom. Seeing as how now the Lucifer's right arm was completely useless due to the fact that it was partially melted Nathan pushed a series of buttons on his armored core's command console and the melted right arm was ejected from the shoulder joint and sent to the ground along with the now useless beam rifle.

Once the Blitz was destroyed there was an almost eerie silence throughout the entire battlefield as if everyone was giving their respects to the one who had given his life to protect his comrade but this only seconds a few seconds afterwards the fighting picked back up again and Nathan continued to press forwards despite being armed only with an energy blade and a pair of mid range missile launchers that would do almost no damage to PS armor.

As Nathan continued his fight against the Duel, Athrun had all but stopped what he was doing when he caught sight of Nichol taking the blow that had been meant for Yzak. Athrun's thoughts turned to all of the times that he had hung out with the most likeable member of the Le Creuset team, no matter what Nichol always wanted to help out others even if they didn't want his help. And now he was gone, just like that.

Athrun turned back to look at the Strike, this was it, this time he was going to destroy the Strike and the Legged Ship along with those thugs that were working with them. With renewed fury Athrun renewed his attack on the Strike with both of his wrist mounted beam sabers extended while the Strike managed to parry and dodge almost each hit. As they continued to fight a green seed spun in Athrun's vision, and then exploded.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Hanger Bay a few moments earlier-<p>

* * *

><p>Back in the Archangel's hanger the other Skygrasper was already making its way to the launch ramp and the newly assigned pilot Tolle Koenig was already on board and was waiting for permission to go out and join the fight. Unlike Kira who experienced much trepidation when going out into combat Tolle was positively excited about finally being able to do something worthwhile since he had gotten on board the Archangel.<p>

This was his big chance to show everyone that he was ready to actually fight in an actual battle. The entire time that he had been on the Archangel he'd been stuck doing little else other than some logistical duties with some of the other bridge officers ever since he had become an Earth Forces Volunteer.

As the Skygrasper rolled over to the Archangel's nearby launcher Tolle's communications unit powered on and Mir's face appeared on the screen wearing a worried expression. Out of everyone the one who wasn't happy with Tolle's recent promotion to a pilot Mir was the most nervous about it.

The reason for this wasn't out of anything petty it was just that she was simply concerned about his wellbeing out on the battlefield. After returning victorious out from the battlefield today Tolle hoped that would help rid her of any concerns that she had.

"Tolle Koenig ready for launch" said Mir's boyfriend. "Affirmative Tolle you have permission to launch" she said before adding under her breath "Just please, be careful" she begged. Tolle simply grinned prior to giving Mir a thumbs up "Don't worry I'll be alright" he assured before he hit the throttle on the Skygrasper which catapulted it out of the ship and into onto the battlefield.

As the Skygrasper flew outwards Tolle was almost completely unprepared for the rate of acceleration that the aircraft was going at. Whenever he used the simulator this never happened once to him. However Tolle managed to quickly adjust himself for it and checked both his radar and outside the cockpit for any targets.

He saw that each and every one of the stolen Gundams as well as the Hydras were out there fighting but they were all currently being held back by the Black Skulls and Mu La Flaga. Kira on the other hand was fighting the Aegis and was having a much more difficult time out of all of them.

The Aegis kept pressing its attack with its wrist and leg mounted beam sabers. The stolen Gundam quickly closed the distance with the Strike, it's beam saber extended and ready for go in for the kill. Kira quickly activated his own beam saber and parried the attack. However this didn't stop the Aegis which continued its assault undaunted the pilot no longer caring about his old friendship with the Strike's pilot, instead all he wanted now was vengeance for the deaths of one of his teammates.

Kira tried to pull back a little in order to get a little bit of breathing room so that he could counterattack but the Aegis wasn't giving him the opportunity to do so. Seeing a flaw in Kira's defense Athrun struck and came dangerously close to slicing off the Strike's left arm.

Tolle was watching the whole thing from the cockpit of the Second Skygrasper and saw that Kira was starting to lose the fight with the Aegis. _'Well, now or never'_ Tolle thought as he brought up the targeting computer and it began the short process of locking onto the Aegis.

Less than half a second later he was locked onto the target and he pushed down with his thumb on one of the buttons on the joystick of the Skygrasper and sent several missiles from their resting compartments and out at the Aegis which was currently pressing the attack on the Strike.

Athrun felt several impacts on the Aegis' back area. Wanting to know as to what the hell had been shooting at him, Athrun checked the rearview monitor and saw that there was a Skygrasper firing away at him with its compliment of missiles. Almost second naturedly Athrun checked the PS armor readout and saw that it was still pretty much at the way it currently was but the energy that was powering the mobile suit was starting to run low.

As the Skygrasper had started to close the distance it had begun to riddle up the entire back portion of the Aegis with machinegun rounds as well as missiles. Once the rounds impacted the armor, Athrun who was now acting purely on combat instinct turned the Aegis around a little and threw the shield that he was using, right at the attacking Skygrasper.

Tolle watched in horror as the Aegis threw its shield right at the machine he was piloting. He was too close to maneuver the Skygrasper around it.

Seeing the inevitable Tolle closed his eyes and whispered four very simple yet heartfelt words to himself mere moments before the makeshift weapon had finally struck the cockpit "Mir, I love you", less than a moment later the shield collided with the Skygrasper killing Tolle in the process and sending the remains of the Skygrasper to the ground of one of the nearby islands.

Once the Skygrasper that his friend had been piloting went down Kira saw a blue seed spin in front of him before bursting into a bright light. The instant that this occurred both former friends activated their beam sabers and attacked one another with renewed fury. They continued to fight for several minutes each one screaming words of both hatred and rage to the other.

As the fight continued Athrun eventually saw an opening and took it and sliced off the Strike's right arm even as it stuck at Athrun as well and completely decapitated the Aegis seconds before Athrun reacted by using his beam saber to slice the Strike's one remaining arm clean off at the elbow joint before cutting the Strike's head clean off.

Seeing as how Athrun didn't have much energy left in the PS armor he had the Aegis transform into its mobile armor mode and rammed the Strike. Athrun was about to fire the Scylla beam cannon but he found that it wasn't working instead the Aegis had changed from its normal red color to a dull grey and dark blue signifying that its PS armor had been completely drained of energy.

Despite this Athrun tried to fire the Scylla cannon for a second or two before he got an idea. The ZAFT pilot then opened up a small control panel which that had a keypad with several numbers on it. Athrun quickly punched a code into the keypad before the screens in the Aegis' cockpit read "Emergency self-destruct sequence activated" as well as a thirty second countdown. Athrun opened the hatch that led out of the cockpit and used his thruster pack in an attempt to escape the blast radius of the Aegis.

Kira watched Athrun leave through a hole inside the ruined cockpit of the Strike and somehow Kira knew what it was that Athrun had done inside the Aegis and began to desperately try to open the hatch that lead out of the Strike only to find that it was stuck. Even as the timer on the Aegis' self destruct mechanism continued to count down Kira still tried to open the hatch.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Flay who had come up to the bridge early in the fighting to see what was going on saw that the pilot of the Buster had gotten out of his mobile suit and was standing by the hatch that lead into the cockpit with his arms up in surrender. Only a few moments after they had finished securing the prisoner a message popped up on the combat monitoring board that read "Ensign Koenig Tolle, signal lost" upon seeing this Mir had all but broken down into tears and what Flay saw next only made her do the exact same thing "Ensign Yamato Kira, signal lost".<p>

Flay felt as though someone had taken her heat and torn it into pieces. Feeling dizzy Flay swayed back and forth for a second before she fell backwards vaguely hearing the captain giving out orders to scramble a rescue team even as lieutenant Badgiruel began to make an argument against such an action.

* * *

><p>To be continued<p>

A/N: I know that I'm probably going to end up getting a helluva lot of flak for killing off Tolle and Nichol but it was necessary for the story to continue its current course and I'm sorry, I liked both of those characters as well when I first watched this series. So please don't flame me alright?


	25. Fallout

Armored Seed

Chapter 25

Fallout

A/N: Sorry I took so long getting this out but between my job, my education and my computer needing repairs I haven't had much time to write, I'll try and make sure that the next chapter comes out sooner.

I know that most of you were expecting Yzak to die but I have my own plans for him, (Insert evil laugh here). As always I'd like to remind everyone that I like it when people state the reasons as to _WHY_ they liked the chapter rather than just stating that they just like it, I enjoy some constructive criticism (not flames).

As for one reviewer's question as to pairing Mir up with an OC I'm not entirely sure on that yet but if I do, than it definitely _won't_ be Nathan, he's going to be paired up with someone else but you've all probably guessed who that's going to be.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT Command Sub, personnel quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>What was left of Athrun's team wasn't in very good spirits at the moment. Dearka had been captured by the enemy and Athrun was still MIA out there somewhere. After Athrun had been declared MIA the ship along with some S&amp;R units from Carpentaria base had been looking for him for close to twenty-four hours. But so far they hadn't found a damned trace of the acting commander. This only left Yzak and the three Hydras.<p>

Yzak was in the locker room in front of Nichol's locker and had just dented the metal of the locker by punching it just a few seconds earlier. Yzak looked at the damage he had caused at the locker with an angry look on his face but the tears in his eyes showed just how sad he was at his friend/comrade's death. "God dammit!" he cursed angrily as slammed his fist into the locker over and over again.

If only Nichol hadn't been so stupid, he shouldn't have jumped into the way of that blast, he didn't deserve to die like that. Yzak let out an angry/sad sigh as he thought about the green haired pilot. Sure the two of them never really saw eye to eye most if not all of the time but Nichol usually had his heart in the right place. And he was a nice guy to everyone, always trying to play the peacemaker whenever two or more of their team members got into an argument.

The green haired boy also had one hell of an aptitude for playing the piano and after hearing him play one time Dearka had remarked that Nichol could make a killing by playing at recitals and concerts where classical music was being played. Now it seemed that would never occur, thanks to a certain red eyed mercenary. Yzak's eyes narrowed in hatred at the mere thought of that bastard as he punched the locker once again in anger. The next time that Yzak saw the Red Eyed Devil, he'd kill that fucked up maniac himself!

Yzak was broken out of his thoughts by a soft sounding female voice "You alright?" the scarred white haired boy turned around and much to his surprise saw Katrina Massey leaning against the wall close to the door to the personnel quarters in her uniform. Yzak turned and looked right at Raven pilot with an irritated look on his face. He _really_ didn't want to deal with her flirting right now.

Before Yzak could speak up and demand that she'd leave the room at once, she raised a hand and cut him off while she stood up straight and walked over to him. As she did this she spoke without that same flirty tone she almost always had and instead spoke in a calm and almost consoling voice that was completely unlike her previous actions when she interacted with those that were around her.

"I'm not here to try and get into your pants or anything like that. All I'm here to do is simply to offer my condolences, losing a comrade in combat can really hurt. Especially when said comrade gave his life to save yours. If you ever need to talk to someone about it, well, I'm more than willing to listen" she explained while she put a hand on his shoulder.

After a few moments Katrina broke off contact and walked back towards the exit. Before she was within a foot of the door however she heard Yzak let out a small "Thank you" Katrina gave small smile at that before she continued out the door. As Katrina walked out she remembered how Lockhart and his second in command Faulkner had acted after they had gotten back from the mission.

They remained completely impassive about the death of Nichol and the possibility that Athrun was dead as well. They still hadn't found Athrun's body or his mobile suit. Nichol was a good kid and he didn't deserve to die like that. After Yzak and the other Hydras had arrived back on the ship Yzak immediately went to inform Nichol's parents of his demise in combat.

To say that they didn't take it well was an understatement from what Katrina had heard from her eavesdropping when she was standing directly outside the room. Nichol's mother had been crying almost hysterically while Nichol's father was apparently trying to comfort his wife as best he could but anyone with intelligence could tell that he too was also internally grieving over his son's death.

Although Katrina was a shameless flirt most, if not all the time, she knew the difference between right and wrong and the only reason that she had signed on to work with the Hydras was because of the heavy amount of payment that their now small group got and she had only signed on with them about a couple of months ago. She knew about some of their more notorious methods when it came to the jobs they took but she had at first thought that it was just a rumor or an exaggeration but soon found out what she had heard were facts.

However Katrina had no other alternative, she had signed a contract that compelled her to be part of the Hydras for at least a one year tour of duty with the Raven group. After completing her first mission with those psychos she had been secretly counting down the days until her contract's expiration date.

To be honest Katrina never really thought about what it was that she would do once the contract had finally expired. Sometimes she entertained the idea of joining another Raven unit but that idea was usually quashed the instant that she started thinking about it. The only group she would be willing to join after all of this was the Black Skulls but it was unlikely that they'd even let her join seeing as how she would have been part of one of a rival organization.

There was also one other way of getting out of the contract with the Hydras but it would probably end up being even riskier than just waiting for it to expire. The other option was to put her commanding officer and his second in command into a position to be killed, if that happened the contract would be no longer valid and there would be nothing holding her back from leaving.

True Katrina had thought about this numerous times in the past but she didn't really have the gall to even try and pull something like that off. After all Lockhart was a very perceptive individual and no doubt kill her if he so much as suspected that she was even thinking of attempting something like that. Katrina sighed in frustration. It seemed that for now all she seemed capable of doing would be biding her time until the right moment.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Almost twenty-four hours had passed since the Archangel's fight against the stolen Gundams and their Raven allies. Shortly after they had lost all contact with the Strike they had pulled back given how they were seriously outnumbered and outgunned. During the battle the Strike and the Aegis had ended up fighting on one of the islands several miles away from the Archangel.<p>

Even if the crash site was only a few miles away the N-Jammers made anything other than direct visual contact virtually impossible. After the Strike and the second Skygrasper went down search parties from the Archangel were sent out to find their missing comrades much to Natarle's chagrin who had insisted that they simply declare them MIA and move onto JOSH-A. Murrue then stated that they would search for twenty-four hours. Just four hours earlier, the twenty-four hours had already come and gone and despite Nathan and Raphael's verbal protests the Archangel was forced to continue on it's mission to Alaska.

Currently Nathan was laying down in his cot and was, for lack of better terms, completely pissed. He had been prohibited to join the search for Kira and Tolle as well as any other combat missions until the Lucifer had finished undergoing repairs. The reason being was that his armored core had been heavily damaged during the previous fight and would be almost completely useless if he were to bring it out into the field. And despite his argument that it would be unlikely that they'd run into that ZAFT force again, seeing as how they had all but decimated their forces during the last battle and that they'd need everyone that had any at all flight experience to join in the search he was still forbidden form doing so.

Then there was the fact that the captain had reluctantly ordered that they continue on their course to JOSH-A despite the very vocal protests he made in regards to that order. This caused him to once again butt heads with Natarle who stated that if they were in a combat scenario and they couldn't rescue or recover MIA personnel then they would have to move on with their mission. It was at that point that Nathan was seriously starting to consider pulling out his sidearm, a .45 caliber pistol and putting a bullet in that woman's face.

Kira had risked his life countless times to protect everyone on that ship. The fact that, that bitch would so callously suggest that they just leave him and Tolle out there to die made him seethe with more than justified fury. Seeing as how it was clear that the captain could no longer be persuaded otherwise Nathan had stormed out of the bridge and back to his quarters. As Nathan contined to lie there he thought that if the captain wouldn't continue the search for their missing comrades, then he'd have to do so himself.

Having wasted too much time already Nathan got up off of his cot and walked towards the room's computer and began to upload something, special into the Archangel's hanger bay door control algorithms. In less than ten minutes the launch doors would open for thirty seconds and no amount of anti hacking programs would be able to stop it. Not wasting anymore time Nathan headed straight for the door, taking his sidearm from the desk and holstering it as he did.

Meanwhile in the crew quarters of this mighty ship Flay was sitting by herself on one of the bunks, her cheeks pink and puffy from all the crying she had done ever since Kira had gone MIA. After the deadline had passed Flay had begged the captain to give the search parties just a few more hours to search the area but the captain of the ship apologized before saying that they couldn't wait any longer. Right now all that Flay found herself capable of doing was sitting down on one of the beds in the quarters she shared with Kira and crying. Mir wasn't taking what happened to Tolle very well either. Even though that Mir's boyfriend was only MIA at the moment she didn't seem to be able to shake the feeling that he was dead rather than just missing.

The members of Black team weren't taking the news that they were moving on very well either. Ever since the twenty-four hour time limit for the rescue had run out they had all but demanded that the captain turn around and continue searching for Kira and Tolle. Despite their demands/pleas, the captain's decision was final. However Murrue assured them that Orb would continue to search for their missing comrades. This made them reluctantly silence their protests and made Flay lose any real hope of going back to search for Kira.

Flay couldn't even sleep since she had awakened from her little fainting episode back on the bridge. Each and every time that she closed her eyes she saw the image of Kira, his dead body completely battered and broken on one of the islands that he had been fighting on. Flay's tears continued to spill as she was caught in her own worry about what could very well have happened to her boyfriend.

The red haired girl was so caught up in her own worry and sadness that she failed to hear the door that lead directly from the hall and into her and Kira's shared quarters slide open. "Hey" someone called out just a few moments before she felt something hit the bed. Flay looked over at the door and saw Nathan standing there with that same stoic look he always had. On the bed was a pilot suit. Flay wiped away the tears that had been pouring down her eyes for the past several hours with her left hand and spoke up "What do you want?" she asked.

"Put that on we're going to go and search for your boyfriend" Nathan stated much to Flay's confusion. Didn't captain Murrue say that they had reached the twenty hour deadline for S&R and that they had to keep moving towards Alaska? Had Nathan and the others managed to change the captains mind somehow?

"The captain changed her mind?" Flay asked hoping that Nathan would be able to give some kind of clarification. The Red Eyed Devil sighed. Now came the difficult part. Either A. Nathan could tell her the honest truth in which the captain had done no such thing and that they would both effectively be going AWOL or B. lie to her. However Nathan quickly decided that it would probably be better if he gave her the honest truth. Besides if she said no which he highly doubted he could always just leave without her.

"The captain doesn't even know about this little excursion, now are you coming or not" he answered bluntly. Flay looked surprised at this and quickly weighed the consequences. If she went with him she could face a court-martial and be dishonorably discharged and even face jail time for going AWOL. But Flay found herself not even caring about the consequences. If this helped to save Kira than it would be more than worth it. Right now Kira was the most important thing she had in her life and she was going to help him consequences be damned.

Flay looked up at Nathan who was patiently awaiting her answer "Alright, I'll come" steel resolve more than evident in her voice. Nathan quickly walked outside of the room before Flay changed from her normal civilian garb and into the pilot uniform. Once she had finished changing Flay ran after Nathan who then started to lead her to the hanger bay _'This time Kira, I'm the one who's going to save you'_ she thought determinedly.

* * *

><p>-Marshall Islands, Orb Territory-<p>

* * *

><p>Lacus was looking out at the beach and watched as the waves brushed up against the shore before they receded back into the ocean. As she watched the waves the pink haired pop star thought back to a certain red eyed boy that she had spent time with when he had visited the orphanage just a couple of days ago. Whenever she spent time with him she felt a strange feeling in her heart, Lacus truly enjoyed spending time with him and despite his stoic façade she could tell that he enjoyed it as well.<p>

However it was clear that Nathan was conflicted about this. He was obviously still grieving over the death of the girl he had fallen in love with and most likely would for a while. Lacus really wanted to help him as best she could through his grief but really had no idea how to accomplish something like that. She was even considering going to reverend Malchio for some advice on what she could do to help him but seeing as how the priest was busy helping the other orphans Lacus decided that it would be best not to trouble him with her own personal issues for now. Especially when one considered how busy Malchio was lately, after all taking care of almost fifty kids could be a very difficult undertaking.

The pink haired pop star continued to look out at the beach for a while longer before she noticed something in the water that was approximately ten feet away from the shoreline. At first glance Lacus believed it to be just a piece of driftwood or something of the like but once it finally finished crashing up on the beach she saw that it was a person in an Atlantic Federation pilot's uniform and he wasn't moving.

Lacus ran up to the individual as quickly as she possibly could and pulled him closer ashore before she removed the pilot's helmet. As Lacus had suspected the individual that was in the ocean water was a boy judging by his frame and constitution. Upon closer examination Lacus recognized the individual.

It was Kira, he had several small cuts and one very nasty looking bruise on his forehead but he didn't seem to have any other injuries to his body but she couldn't be sure since the flight suit was slightly torn up in some places. Not wasting precious time Lacus hurriedly put her index and middle finger of her right hand onto the boy's jugular artery and checked to see if Kira had a pulse.

The pink haired girl let out a sigh of relief when she found one, it was a weak one but at least there was one there. Not really knowing what else to do, Lacus slung the boy's arm over her shoulder and began to take him back to reverend Malchio's for medical treatment. As Lacus helped Kira back to the reverend's orphanage Kira seemed to be in a semiconscious state and as they made their way from the beach to the orphanage Kira continued to mumble out "Flay" once every few seconds, this made it clear that the boy was in a delirious state.

Eventually Lacus managed to make her way back to the orphanage. There were several kids out playing in the back when she returned and they were startled, to say the least that Lacus was helping a seriously wounded boy about her age back to the house. However they all cleared the way to make it easy for Lacus to have better access to the inside of the orphanage. Upon seeing Lacus helping the wounded boy make it to his doorstep, reverend Malchio immediately got up off of where he was sitting and walked towards them and began to help haul the now completely unconscious boy into the house. Once inside they took the unconscious pilot to the infirmary and laid him on one of the beds they had in there.

After that had been finished they began to get him out of the chest portion of the flight suit so that they would be able to get a better look at his injuries. As they took the suit off they noticed that there were a large number of tears on several parts of the suit and it was clear that the ocean water had seeped into the once airtight flight suit. The two of them took off the flight suit they saw that the boy had many more cuts and bruises all over his body.

As they continued to patch up the injured pilot the reverend turned to Lacus and asked "Lacus what happened while you were out at the beach earlier?". Lacus looked over at the reverend and after a moment's hesitation gave a response "Well I was out at the beach when I saw something coming in with the tide. At first I thought that it was just a piece of debris or something but I soon saw that it was a person so I went over there to see if I could help them. After I took off the helmet I saw that it was Kira, the same boy I told you about when I first came here" she explained.

The reverend stroked his chin in thought for a few seconds _'What on earth happened out there?'_ he wondered looking down at the boy who laid their unconscious.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Hanger Bay-<p>

* * *

><p>Nathan and Flay didn't attract all that much attention as they made their way for the hanger. After all most of the crew was busy with repairs to the damage that had been inflicted to the ship during their last battle. Even their friends from Heliopolis were busy with their own duties and hadn't really been able to talk with Flay or Nathan since the battle had ended. But Nathan knew how they were feeling.<p>

Concern, for their friends/loved ones safeties and perhaps even a tinge of betrayal at the fact that captain Murrue despite having done her job and ordered a search for the missing pilots had decided after only a twenty four hour search to declare the pilots MIA. At least she had informed Orb government officials who had promised them that they would continue to search for the missing pilots.

Nathan let out a sigh, he really shouldn't be blaming Murrue for continuing onto JOSH-A, she really had gone above and beyond for them ever since Heliopolis. Besides it was standard Atlantic Federation military procedure to search for MIA personnel in a contested zone for twenty four hours at the maximum before heading back to base so that a more organized search could be launched.

However this would take far too long in Nathan's opinion and that by the time that they did send a rescue team, Kira and Tolle could both be dead. Yes the Orb government was looking for them but Nathan doubted that it was a high priority for them. Sure for Cagalli and Kisaka it would probably be a high priority but they were only two individuals that had a handful of S&R teams along with them and even with the extra help it was unlikely that would make much of a difference.

However if two more individuals were to say, 'borrow' an expensive piece of Atlantic Federation military equipment from a classified warship and go out to join the search than their chances would improve, if only by a small amount. As they walked through the hanger Nathan eventually spotted just the thing that he had been looking for. Mu's Skygrasper.

It was standard military procedure that after each and every battle all machines were to immediately have their weaponry and fuel supplies replenished. This was normally a twenty to thirty minute process when it came to a Skygrasper and given the fact that commander La Flaga hadn't piloted the machine in almost twenty-four hours and that there wasn't a fuel hose still attached to the machine indicated that all maintenance duties had been performed on the aerospace fighter some time ago.

Nathan and Flay weren't bothered by any of the engineering teams as they were busy working on fixing up the armored cores that had been scattered about the hanger. They were so concerned with rearming the weapons and repairing the damage that had been inflicted unto them during the last battle that they failed to even notice the two pilots enter the hanger bay. This made getting on board the Skygrasper a relatively simple task.

Nathan climbed up the small ladder that was built into the machine and hopped into the pilot's seat while Flay took the back seat where an additional passenger would be able to help control the beam turret that had been mounted on the Skygrasper's main body.

The Skygrasper's engines started to growl as it powered up but before Nathan could seal the cockpit chief engineer Murdoch who had been standing nearby ran over to their location "Hey! What the hell do you kids think you're doing?!" he demanded angrily. Nathan looked at him with that same stoic face he almost always had on "We're borrowing this for a little while and the only way that you'll be able to stop us is if your willing to shoot a couple of teenagers" he stated calmly.

Murdoch sighed, he knew that these kids were going to go and look for Kira and Tolle and despite not approving of the way they were going about doing it he couldn't' really blame them. In fact he hated the decision that the captain had made just a few hours earlier, feeling that they were leaving Kira and Tolle high and dry when they had always helped them out.

"Alright, just be careful out there okay?" he said before Nathan gave the engineer an approving nod "If anyone asks, just tell them I pointed a gun at you" he suggested before the cockpit slid down and sealed shut.

The Skygrasper made its way to the launch pad and right before it got there Flay noticed that the launch bay doors weren't open, if they tried to leave now then they would just splatter against the doors. "Wait, Nathan the launch pad isn't even open, how are we supposed to get out of here?" she asked as she strapped herself into the rear seat. At first Nathan didn't respond, instead he looked at the time being displayed on one of the Skygrasper's monitors before replying "That problem should take care of itself in just a few seconds" he answered cryptically.

Sure enough in less than five seconds the launch bay doors started to open up. Flay looked over at Nathan and was kind of impressed and wondered as to how he had managed to pull this one off. But now was neither the time nor the place for such trivial details.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Crewman Walter Brown was looking over his console that monitored the Archangel's primary and secondary systems and was currently sipping down a cup of coffee when a message appeared on the screen that indicated that something had just overridden part of the ship's systems. Putting his glass of water down nearby Brown checked which systems were being taken over and saw that it was the hanger launch bay doors.<p>

At first Brown thought that this may have been some kind of a system glitch and attempted to verify only to find that this wasn't the case. Brown quickly tapped into the security camera for the hanger bay and saw Mu's Skygrasper on the launch pad "Um lieutenant Badgiruel someone's just overridden the launch door controls in the hanger bay and one of the Skygraspers is getting ready to launch" he announced to his supervisor.

Upon hearing what the crewman had just said everyone's head turned to see what was going on even as Natarle got out of her seat and marched over to the crewman and took a communications headset with her "Attention whoever's in that Skygrasper stand down and identify yourselves immediately!" she ordered.

Natarle knew that it had to be one or two members of Black team, after all they were the most vocal against continuing on to JOSH-A without Kira and Tolle. Her suspicions were soon confirmed when the individual who was piloting the machine responded "This is Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher, I hope you don't mind but Flay and I are going to be borrowing this machine for a little bit" he stated.

The lieutenant looked almsot flabbergasted at what the Raven pilot had just stated, but this didni't last long "You are stealing Atlantic Federation military property for which you will be indicted for, now stand down immediately!" she ordered. Nathan then looked direcly at Natarle's face on the communication's screen and said something that nobody had expected him to say "Lieutenant with all due respect I've been wanting to say this for quite some time now, _go fuck yourself_!"

To say that Natarle hadn't been expecting Nathan to say something like that would be an understatement. Sure the boy had a tendency to be confrontational with people whose decisions he didn't like she hadn't heard him use such profanity before. Before Natarle could make any sort of a response to the pilot, captain Hackett who had been listening in to the entire conversation, took the headset away from her and spoke into it.

"Lieutenant Fletcher this is your commanding officer, now I may not agree with captain Ramius' decision in the matter but you're not helping anyone by doing this, I order you stop what your doing at once, look we can talk this over with the captain and-" Hackett then found himself cut off by Nathan who although still sounded stoic there was a hint of remorse in his tone "Sir consider this my resignation from the Black Skulls" he stated.

This almost floored every single Black Skulls member that was on the bridge at the time in disbelief. The last person that any of them thought would resign from the Black Skulls would be Nathan. After all they were the closest thing to family that the boy had. Before Hackett could give a response Nathan cut communications with the Archangel.

Walter who had was still monitoring the ship's systems said "Lieutenant Badgiruel, the Skygrasper is uh, just about ready to launch" he said "Seal off the hanger bay, close the launch bay doors now!" she ordered. Walter then started to relentlessly type commands into the console's keyboard but to no avail. The computer wasn't responding to any of his commands "I can't!" he exclaimed "I've been locked out of the system somehow!" he said while the Skygrasper on the screen flew out of the Archangel's launch bay.

For an brief second Natarle considered telling Murrue that they still had weapons control and they could shoot down the AWOL pilots but almost immediately after she started to consider it, Natarle's mind soon shot the idea down. The by-the-book lieutenant knew that the captain would never go for it. Instead they'd probably end up having to seek an injunction with the Orb government after this mess was all over in order to put them on trial for theft of military property.

"Captain what are your orders?" asked Natarle looking directly at the woman. Murrue seemed to ponder their options for a moment. On one hand they could shoot down the leaving craft with their guns but then they would kill two valuable pilots and Murrue wasn't one to kill allies, even when they did something as foolish as this. On the other they could just let them go and seek an injunction from the Orb government after they reached JOSH-A. Less than a minute later Murrue let the crew know of her decision "We can't waste time going after a pair of rogue pilots right now, we're going to continue to Alaska and then we'll talk to the Orb government about handing the two AWOL pilots over to an Earth Forces military tribunal"

Everyone on the bridge, even Natarle who was practically notorious for disagreeing with the captain, seemed to have accepted this course of action and quickly returned to their assigned duties

Up in the skies away from the Archangel, Flay let out a sigh of relief. For a moment she had thought that the Archangel was going to open fire on them. After all they were stealing military property and going AWOL in the middle of a mission so it was very possible that they would be shot in the back while they were running. "Why aren't they shooting at us? I mean we just committed desertion" Flay wondered aloud.

Nathan rolled his eyes at the question "It's not captain Ramius' style, besides if she did order us shot down she'd probably end up having to deal with a mutiny. If she really feels the need to have us arrested for stealing Atlantic Federation property, she'll probably just request that Orb hand us over after they arrive at Alaska but that's about it" he assured.

Flay looked out the cockpit's window and saw the vast expanse of ocean surrounding them "So where are we going now?" she asked. Nathan flipped a couple of switches on the dashboard "We're heading for the site of the last battle, we're only about a couple of hours away so we should be able to join up with the Orb rescue teams that are in the area" he said as the Skygrasper continued to gain distance away from the Archangel.

'_Just hang on Kira I'll be there soon'_ thought Flay.

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p>

A/N: I know it's short but hey it's still better than nothing


	26. Justice or Vengeance

Armored Seed

Chapter 26

Justice or Vengeance

A/N: just a little warning, this chapter will get somewhat graphic at one point. But for the sake of the squeamish I'm going to mark it.

* * *

><p>-Orb Aircraft Carrier, Captain's Office-<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Benjamin Hauser was looking over the latest scout reports before he let out a frustrated sigh, the search wasn't going well. He and his men had been searching the surrounding area from the Archangel's previous location for the past several hours and they hadn't been able to come up with much. If this was any other circumstance they would simply use thermal detection units to locate the MIA pilots but seeing as how there were a large number of N-Jammers in the area this was made nearly impossible. Because of the N-Jammers the S&amp;R teams were forced to rely mainly on line of sight methods of detection which limited their aircraft's scouting capabilities.<p>

Cagalli and Kisaka had volunteered their services to aid in the search. Despite captain Hauser's own misgivings about allowing a very high ranking politician's daughter, even one who had proven herself to be a very capable young woman come aboard a military vessel that was in the middle of an operation.

However since Cagalli's father had given her reluctant permission to join the search, the two of them were reluctantly welcomed aboard his ship and both been out helping the search and rescue teams ever since the search had first started. The two of them returned only to refuel the search and rescue aircraft that they had been using.

Hauser looked over at the reports again and estimated that it would probably at take them at least another seven hours to search the ten mile zone that the battle between ZAFT and the Archangel had taken place only a day before. Hauser continued to look over the reports for a few more minutes before one of Houser's subordinates, an ensign if the markings on his uniform were anything to go by, came into the office and gave the captain a sharp salute.

"Sir we've just received a transmission from an Atlantic Federation fighter, they're, uh…" the ensign trailed off apparently having become tongue-tied. Hauser, not having had much sleep since the search and rescue operation began, quickly became impatient with the ensign's lack of response "Well spit it out soldier! What do they want?" he demanded.

"They say that they're here to help with the search and rescue and the one that's piloting the Skygrasper has informed us that he's the Red Eyed Devil and he's requesting permission to land" the ensign said quickly as he didn't want to earn the captain's anger. Hauser's look changed from that of frustration to that of confusion. The Archangel had stated that they were going to continue on towards Alaska. What in the hell was an Atlantic Federation fighter doing back here? Had the Archangel's captain given the Red Eyed Devil an order to go back and help search for the other missing pilots?

Captain Hauser sighed before he made his decision regarding the aircraft "Give them permission to land, right now we could use all the help that we can get with the search" Hauser ordered before he got up off of his seat, intent on heading for the deck to greet the new arrivals in person. After all it wasn't every day that someone met the infamous Nathan Fletcher in person and Houser believed that it would most likely prove to be an interesting experience to finally meet the man who had earned the moniker, Red Eyed Devil.

* * *

><p>It had taken the two AWOL pilots a few hours to make it from the Archangel to the Orb naval vessel that was heading the search for Kira and Tolle. The Skygrasper was starting to run low on fuel as it had only been designed for short range dogfights, not long range recon missions. In fact they were both extremely lucky that the Skygrasper made it to the Orb aircraft carrier when it did. However Nathan knew that they would more than likely reach the Orb carrier before they ran out of fuel after he found out the distance to and from the Archangel and Orb carrier plus the Skygrasper's fuel capacity and mileage.<p>

In the back seat of the Skygrasper, Flay had started to become a little antsy. They had been flying for several hours and she was more than eager to begin looking for Kira and now they had found the Orb aircraft carrier but so far they hadn't received permission to land from the ship. After three long minutes of waiting for an answer to their request the ship finally haled them again "Attention Skygrasper you have permission to land on pad four" said the carrier's communications officer.

'_Finally'_ thought Flay as Nathan responded "Roger that, Orb carrier we'll be landing shortly" he said as he maneuvered the Skygrasper towards the landing pad. Once they were directly over the landing pad Nathan flipped a couple of switches so that he could enter the Skygrasper's VTOL mode. The fighter then began to slowly lower onto the pad where a deck crew was waiting for them.

Once the aerospace fighter had finally finished landing on the pad Nathan switched off the engines and within a few moments the once humming engines of the machine fell deathly silent. With the engine fully off, the deck crews moved a ladder over to the fighter's cockpit so that it would allow the occupants a much easier time getting out of the machine. Nathan quickly made his way out of the machine and onto the ground and spotted a man wearing an Orb Naval uniform and judging by the design of the shoulder pads he was the captain of the vessel.

The red eyed Raven pilot moved out of the way so that Flay would have an easier time getting out of the fighter before he pulled his helmet off and gave the captain a quick, yet firm salute "Lieutenant Nathan Fletcher, formerly of the Black Skulls, now a freelance Raven pilot" he said before Flay who had finally made her way down the ladder took off her helmet as well and joined Nathan and gave the captain a salute, albeit a much more clumsy one. "Ensign Flay Allster formerly of the Atlantic Federation Navy" she said.

'_Formerly?'_ wondered captain Hauser. It sounded like the two of them had a bit of a story to share but he'd have that sorted out later maybe. Not wanting the two of them to stand their at attention all day long, Hauser gave a response "At ease" he said before the two pilots in front of him immediately stopped saluting "My name is captain Benjamin Hauser. Now would you two kindly explain what exactly you two doing are out here?" he asked, although he had some suspicions about that, and these suspicions were almost immediately confirmed only a few moments later "We're here to help with the search for ensign Yamato and ensign Koenig of the Archangel" Nathan explained.

Hauser looked at them, _"Ah, that's why they're here they must've gone AWOL so that they could help out in the search' _he realized. "Really? Alright, seeing as how I'm not generally someone who looks a gift horse in the mouth, I'll allow you to aid in the search the instant that your fighter has finished refueling operations and then we'll have you search some of the areas we haven't checked as of yet" said Hauser.

Neither Flay nor Nathan wanted to wait that long to get out there and look for their friends. Without missing a beat, Nathan spoke up again, only this time he had a hint of urgency to his voice

"Sir with all do respect this is a short range fighter and we barely had enough fuel to make it here, if we were to take the Skygrasper out again we would be severely limited in range when we go out looking for our missing comrades. I'm asking for your permission to borrow one of your search and rescue aircraft so that we can go out and search the area immediately" he stated.

Hauser let out a sigh, that request was going to be a bit of a problem "I'm sorry Mr. Fletcher but all of our Echo units are out searching at this time" he explained. For a moment Flay looked a little down. They had made it all the way out there and now they had to wait even longer before they could go and look for Kira and Tolle. Flay was about to ask if there was any other craft available to them that they could use to search for Kira and Tolle, when as luck would have it, an Orb search and rescue aircraft (An Echo) started flying towards one of the nearby landing pads. The search and rescue aircraft strongly resembled an old Osprey helicopter from the twenty-first century. However this machine was much more birdlike and had a much smaller cockpit that resembled that of a Hind-D.

As the Echo entered VTOL mode on one of the carrier's landing pads Nathan looked back over at captain "I don't suppose that we could borrow that after it's done refueling?" he asked gesturing to the search and rescue unit behind him with his thumb. The plane eventually set down on the landing pad and a pair of familiar individuals came out of the ship, Cagalli and Kisaka to be precise.

The instant that Cagalli caught sight of Nathan and Flay, her expression turned to surprise and then shock. "Flay, Nathan what the hell are you two doing here?!" Cagalli all but exclaimed, she hadn't been expecting them to get here. Kisaka however was a bit more calm and composed when compared to his charge, in fact it looked as though he had been expecting the two of them to arrive at the carrier for a while now. During his time on the Archangel, Kisaka believed that the so called "Red Eyed Devil" was actually a young man that had fairly decent morals and always followed them despite the punishment he may end up receiving from following them.

"Nice to see you too" Nathan replied dryly. Before Cagalli could respond to that little remark, Flay spoke up "Isn't it obvious? We're here to help look for Kira and Tolle" she declared. Upon hearing that little declaration Cagalli looked confused for a moment, didn't the captain of he Archangel say that they were headed straight for Alaska? Cagalli then realized that given how much of a protest Nathan had put up over leaving Kira and Tolle behind and how enamored Flay was with Kira that it wasn't too difficult to ascertain that they had probably jumped ship the moment that an opportunity arose so that they could go and search for the missing pilots.

Deciding that they had been playing twenty questions long enough, Nathan gestured towards the Orb aircraft that was parked on one of the nearby landing pads and was currently having a couple of engineers attaching a refueling line to it "Now, on to more important matters, how long before that search and rescue aircraft has finished refueling?" Nathan asked as both he and Flay hoped that it would be very soon.

Cagalli and Kisaka looked back over at the aircraft that they had been using for the past several hours "Well we used up about half of it's fuel supply so I'd guess a good fifteen to twenty minutes max" Kisaka guessed with a shrug. Nathan sighed, two minutes was too long for both him and Flay at the moment but it seemed that neither had much choice in the matter. The two of them walked towards the Echo and waited for the refueling operation to finish.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Crew Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Mir, Sai, Kuzzey and the ship's chief medical officer Carmen Leone were walking down one of the corridors that lead to the ship's brig with a plate of food from the cafeteria in Mir's hands. On the girl's face was a very depressed look. It was obvious to both Sai and Carmen that the girl was going through a very difficult time, they all were. Tolle was a very good friend and comrade to all of them and they were all taking his apparent death very hard. After all Tolle had gone up against a Gundam with a Skygrasper and it didn't take a genius to figure out who would come out on top in that kind of a fight.<p>

The four of them were making their way towards the Archangel's brig as Mir had been ordered by Natarle to take over Flay's old duties. And one of her newly assigned jobs was to deliver food to the ship's newest prisoner. The only thing that was between her and the brig was the sound of her footsteps echoing throughout the nearly deserted hallway. Mir really wished that she hadn't been given this job, the last thing she wanted to do at the moment was help someone who may very well have had something to do with her boyfriend getting killed.

Mir was almost at the door when Carmen put her hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to turn around to look at the older woman. Carmen had on a very concerned yet serious expression "Are you sure you want to do this? I could take it from here if you want" she stated. Mir would've liked nothing more than to have someone else do that kind of a job but no matter how much she didn't want to do it she still had a job to do.

"I-I'll do it" Mir said weakly and thankfully Carmen decided not to pursue the matter any further and neither did Sai and Kuzzey.

Mir opened the door walked into the brig before she proceeded to close the door behind her. The brig itself wasn't much to look at, there was a single bunk bed and a small toilet in the corner of the room which was adjacent to a sink. On the lower bunk was the prisoner. The prisoner was a man that was about her age with blond hair and tanned skin. The name tag on the young man's uniform read "Dearka Elsman".

Dearka looked over at the new visitor and saw the almost tearful expression on her face "What the hell are you crying about? If anything I'm the one that should be crying" he stated rudely. Mir barely managed to ignore that with some effort but the prisoner's next comment threw the grieving girl far past her breaking point "So What? Did your pathetic Natural boyfriend die or something?"

Over the past day and a half Mir had been tormented on whether or not Tolle was alive or dead. Then this bastard comes along and calls the man who quite possibly gave his life to save her and everyone else on this ship pathetic. This one little comment was what managed to push, no, throw Mir passed her breaking point. The young brown haired girl let out an almost feral scream before she took the knife that was on the tray that she had been carrying and started to run towards the prisoner in a blind rage and was more than willing to stab the young man to death.

Before Mir could even make two steps forward, she felt two people grab her from behind. "Mir what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Sai demanded as he kept her from rushing forwards and murdering the prisoner of war that was restrained just a few feet in front of them while Kuzzey kept quiet but had a surprisingly firm grip on the grief-stricken young woman. Mir said nothing but still struggled against their grip while another person came into view, the ship's temporary medical officer, Carmen Leone. The young woman walked right over to Mir and quickly managed to remove the knife from her hands before placing the small blade in her pocket.

Carmen then marched straight up to the prisoner and raised her arm back and kept her hand open before it flew downwards and smacked Dearka on the right side of his face.

"You little piece of shit!" Carmen roared before she looked over at Mir and her two friends who had finally managed to restrain the poor girl and gave the girl a sympathetic look before giving the two that had been restraining her a serious look "The two of you go and take her out of here, I'm going to have a little conversation with this bastard" she stated as Kuzzey and Sai slowly managed to drag Mir out of the brig who was now sobbing uncontrollably.

Once Mir had been taken out of the room Carmen glared sternly at the Archangel's prisoner. Although he was momentarily cowed, Dearka managed to start to speak up after a few seconds. However he was completely cut off before he could even utter so much as a single syllable.

"How dare you" Carmen stated with a cold and cutting edge to her tone "Tolle gave his life to protect everyone else on this ship and you _dare_ to insult his memory by calling him pathetic, under any other circumstances I would have let Mir kill you for that, but since she'd probably be charged with war crimes if she did, I allowed her two friends to intervene, but if you insult anyone on this ship like that again, I won't stop anyone from hurting you" she warned before turning around to walk outside the room, not even giving the captured ZAFT pilot so much as a second glance.

* * *

><p>-Orb Territory, Near the Marshall Islands, Echo Search and Rescue Aircraft-<p>

* * *

><p>Flay was sitting down in one of the passenger seats near the rear of the Orb navy's search and rescue vehicle. The refueling operation had taken less time than they had originally thought and now Flay was finally doing what she had come out all this way for, to find Kira. Nathan and Kisaka were up front piloting the vehicle while Flay and Cagalli were sitting near the back of the vehicle. The red haired girl was looking out the window that was next to her seat, hoping that she'd be able to catch a glimpse of something anything that would indicate that Kira was still amongst the living.<p>

Cagalli, getting a little bothered by the lack of any kind of social activity since they left the Orb carrier took a glance over at Flay and silently wondered to herself how the red haired girl had been holding up ever since her boyfriend had been declared MIA. Despite the mostly calm look on the girl's face it was easy for anyone to see that Flay was incredibly distraught and anxious in regards to Kira and Tolle.

More than once throughout the trip Cagalli wanted to speak up, to interact with the red haired girl, to tell her that their missing friends were going to be okay. But Cagalli didn't, she couldn't, after all it would be foolish to try and get someone's hopes up, especially when your own was next to nil.

The next few minutes proceeded in almost complete silence, the sound of the engines and the occasional noise from the cockpit were the only things that really kept everyone company. However that silence didn't last as Kisaka noticed something on the audio receivers, it was an automated distress that was giving off an Atlantic Federation code but thanks to all the N-Jammer interference in the area it would impossible to detect unless a rescue team got within short range.

"Nathan I'm picking up an Atlantic Federation distress beacon" he stated. That one small sentence managed to grab everyone's attention. Flay practically jumped right out of her seat and ran to the cockpit a hopeful expression on her face "Are you sure? Is it Kira and Tolle? Are they alright?" the redhead asked rapidly and with renewed hope in her voice.

Kisaka gave the universal signal for Flay to stop and be quiet "Look all I know is that it's an automated distress signal, which was probably sent after whoever it was crashed, and based on the signal strength I'd say that it's emanating from the island directly to the north west of our current location" he explained while he pointed towards one of the nearby islands.

Nathan tilted the Echo's joystick directly towards the area that Kisaka was pointing at. The Echo tilted for a moment before the search and rescue bird started to make its way for the point where their comrade was hopefully still alive and waiting for them. The moment that the Echo was directly over the beach where the distress beacon was coming, Nathan activated the aircraft's VTOL mode and began to slowly make its descent. As they got closer to the ground the occupants of the Echo saw that it wasn't the Gundam that was giving off the distress beacon but the Skygrasper that Tolle had been piloting

It was a long twenty seconds before they finally touched down on the LZ, throughout the entire time, almost everyone's heart was pounding like a drum in anxiety. Each of the occupants of the Echo were praying to whatever deity that would listen that they would find Tolle alive and relatively unscathed but at the same time they were all dreading the horror of what they would find if he wasn't.

Seconds before the Echo fully touched down Nathan turned to Kisaka and said almost uneasily "Kisaka after we land, could you prep a body bag? Just in case what I hope doesn't happen, happens" Kisaka immediately understood Nathan's request and nodded solemnly.

The instant that the Echo finally managed to fully land on the island, Nathan killed the aircraft's engines and walked towards the rear hatch, but not before grabbing an emergency medical kit that was kept underneath the pilot seat on his way out of the cockpit. Upon exiting the cockpit Nathan activated the ramp for the Echo so that they could all get out of the aircraft and investigate the crash site. Flay and Cagalli ran down the ramp even though it hadn't been fully lowered as of yet. Nathan shook his head silently as he went after the two of them while he kept a hand on the medical kit. Once he was outside Nathan looked over to where the two were running and started to sprint as quickly as he could to catch up with them.

As he got closer and closer to the wreckage of the downed Skygrasper Nathan saw that the damage to the fighter was much worse than he had first speculated. He found it odd how he had missed the fact that the Aegis's shield had impacted the ground near the wreck. And as he got closer to the fighter he saw what looked like a person through the glass canopy. This wasn't a good sign.

Nathan increased his speed and eventually ran past the two of them and quickly closed the distance between him and the Skygrasper. The machine had been completely totaled. Several small bits and pieces of the Skygrasper's hull that had fallen off after the aerospace fighter had crashed littered the sands beneath it, one of the wings had been completely torn off along with the engine and had impacted the ground just a few feet away from where the main body of the wreckage had crashed. The main gun was bent at an impossible angle and lying on the ground behind the machine. However this didn't really concern him as he looked over at the cockpit of the machine and sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

(Graphic material begins, read at your own discretion, you have been warned)

The Raven operator climbed up onto the top of the Skygrasper and carefully made his way towards the cockpit of the machine where a horrific stench greeted him along with what was perhaps the most horrific part of the crash. Tolle's body was stuck inside the cockpit, his left arm was bent into a very disturbing angle and it looked like there was bone sticking up against the tight suit that all AF pilots wore.

Tolle's blue flight suit was torn up and had turned brown from the dried blood. The helmet's visor had shattered once he had impacted the ground, this managed to send shards of glass either cutting into his face, or into the console in front of him. However the most disturbing part of this was the boy's eyes. They were partially glazed over and were staring upwards. After barely managing to fight off the urge to vomit up his breakfast, Nathan slowly reached his left hand into the shattered canopy and closed the poor boy's eyes.

Nathan uttered a small "Rest in piece" before proceeded to pull his hand away from the corpse and out of the Skygrasper's shattered canopy. Without a second to lose Nathan hopped off of the roof of the Skygrasper. Once he hit the ground he looked up and saw that Flay and Cagalli had made their way there and both had horrified looks on their faces. Nathan looked at the two of them and gave them a simple "I'm sorry"

(Graphic material ends)

A few minutes later Kisaka and Nathan managed to get Tolle's body out of the cockpit and into the body bag that Kisaka had brought with them. Flay had turned away from the sight of Tolle's corpse for a few moments but for some reason she turned back and looked and saw what was left of Tolle. Flay felt a lump forming in her throat making her run a short distance before she emptied the contents of her stomach. Even after Flay had finished emptying her stomach, she continued to dry heave for a little while longer before finally her body realized that it had nothing more to cough up.

Flay used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe off some stray bits of vomit that clung to the sides of her moth and felt mildly dazed. Flay then felt a hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?" Cagalli asked. Flay shook her head, no "I'll feel much better when we find Kira" she explained.

Nathan looked over to where the wreck of the Skygrasper was and spoke up "Well it looks like we won't have to look very far for him. This Skygrasper was more than likely either in front or behind the Strike when it went down so my guess is that Kira more than likely somewhere in the surrounding area" he explained before he walked over to the body bag and began to help Kisaka carry it back to the Echo.

A few minutes later they managed to find the Strike's location. The Strike was near the center of a small crater where bits and pieces of the Aegis littered the ground nearby. The remains of the Gundam that Kira had been piloting since the events at Heliopolis was in slightly better condition than Toll's Skygrasper had been, but that wasn't saying much. Both of the Strike's legs were completely destroyed and the left arm had been blown off at the elbow joint and half of the Gundam's head was completely blown away. However the Gundam's torso was in relatively decent condition, there were a few holes here and there but there didn't seem to be much damage done to where the cockpit was located.

This gave everyone there a small sense of hope that their friend was still among the living, despite the disturbing surprise that awaited them when they had found Tolle's Skygrasper. The moment they landed Flay all but rushed out the door, intent on finding her missing boyfriend and didn't even pay attention to the requests that were made for her to slow down and wait for the rest of them.

Upon reaching the Strike she quickly made her way up to the Gundam's cockpit while Cagalli and Nathan followed close behind. Once she reached right outside cockpit Flay saw that the exterior armor that protected the cockpit had been breached. The breach consisted of what looked like a slash mark near the cockpit's main computer. Flay clambered over to where the hull had been breached and looked inside to see…nothing. There was no blood, no body, nothing except for some damaged but still intact controls. The strange thing though was that the pilot seat was missing.

Soon everyone had gotten a decent look at the inside of the Strike's cockpit and seeing as how there wasn't a body like when they found Tolle's Skygrasper this improved Flay's mood a little bit. Kira was still alive. However there were those who had other theories about what had happened to Kira "It is possible that Kira could have been vaporized by the explosion" said Kisaka which caused Flay's facial features to look horrified at least until Nathan shook his head.

"That's unlikely, if Kira had been vaporized then most of the machinery inside the cockpit would have been destroyed as well, instead it's merely damaged and seeing as how the pilot's chair can also function as a kind of escape pod, it's more than probable that Kira is still alive somewhere"

Cagalli was a little confused. If the eject seat had been activated why hadn't the cockpit remained open? Cagalli quickly brought this to Nathan's attention and he explained that almost all mobile suits and armored core's emergency escape transported the pilots from the cockpit to a an area just below the neck of the machine, then the seat was encased in a pod that was launched from the neck of the machine and broke apart after it landed if it was on earth.

However if the ejection mechanism had activated while in the vacuum of space, the pod would remain sealed until a rescue team arrived to pick it up. And sure enough a quick check of the neck of the unit revealed that it was possible that the escape pod could have been jettisoned from the mobile suit but it was impossible to tell due to all of the damage that the Strike had sustained during the battle.

With the probability that Kira was still alive the four of them continued to search with renewed vigor in their hearts. They all began calling out Kira's name as they walked around looking for him. They spread out in different directions, each of them had a radio that they could use to contact the others in the event that they found something that may give them a clue as to where Kira had gone.

Nathan was making his way through part of the dense foliage and saw a small clearing in front of him. In that clearing there was a single small tree and up against it was a male teenager in a red ZAFT uniform. The boy had short dark hair and green eyes. Nathan pulled his pistol out of his holster, it seemed that the enemy pilot hadn't spotted him yet and given how exhausted the enemy pilot looked it could stay that way for a while. Nathan pushed the talk button on his radio and spoke into it quietly.

"I've found a ZAFT pilot, he hasn't spotted me yet, come to my position three dozen meters north of the Strike's crash site immediately" he ordered before he pulled back on the pistol's slide, and sent a round in the chamber before he flipped the safety off the weapon before he started to make his way out of the dense foliage and into the clearing as quietly as he possibly could.

Once Nathan was out of the jungle canopy he aimed his pistol directly at the pilot and shouted "Don't move!" the ZAFT pilot looked up at the person who had just yelled at him. The ZAFT pilot's eyes widened a fraction before narrowing. He looked like he was starting to reach for something that was behind his back but two gunshots rang out and impacted the ground mere inches from where he was sitting making him stop and seemingly reconsider that course of action.

"The next time you make a move I'll just put a bullet in your brain. Now keep your hands where I can see them and stand up, slowly!" Nathan ordered his aim not wavering for a moment.

As the enemy pilot slowly stood up his hands reaching for the sky, a voice came over the Red Eyed Devil's radio "Nathan, we heard gunshots, are you alright?!" Kisaka asked worriedly. Nathan took the communicator out of one of his suit's pockets and spoke into it "I'm fine, I have the pilot of the Aegis in custody" he explained before he put his radio back where it belonged.

Nathan continued to keep his gun trained on the enemy soldier and was really starting to wish that he had brought something to restrain the prisoner with. As Nathan stood there he saw that the new POW was assessing the situation and was probably trying to find a way to get out of the situation that he now found himself in but he didn't dare to try anything, after all even Coordinators couldn't hope to dodge a speeding bullet.

The rest of the search team quickly found Nathan and his captive and the instant that Cagalli laid eyes on the guy she immediately recognized him to be Athrun, that same boy she had met back on that island that the two of them had been stranded on. "Athrun!" she exclaimed clearly shocked at this recent development "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded. Athrun looked at Cagalli with an equally surprised expression, clearly even he didn't think that she would end up being on the same island as him again.

The moment that Flay had heard Cagalli say 'Athrun' she remembered Kira mentioning that Kira had a childhood friend named Athrun and that he was one of the ZAFT pilots that had been pursuing the Archangel. And since he was on the island too he had to have been the one that Kira was fighting and Flay seriously doubted that Athrun would try to hurt Kira given their past, so it was somewhat feasible that he knew where Kira was.

Flay looked at Athrun almost desperately "Where is he? Please you have to tell me" she begged "Please tell me where Kira is" upon hearing that sentence Athrun's face took on an almost gloomy expression "Kira's dead, I killed him" he declared stoically. Everyone there seemed stunned at this new revelation. Flay's shock turned to horror and then finally, hatred.

Acting on impulse Flay ran over to Cagalli and took her pistol out of its holster and aimed it directly at Athrun shouting "You monster!" as tears fell down her face as she pulled the gun's trigger. Although Flay had intended for the bullet to directly hit Athrun's heart she was unprepared for the weapon's recoil and instead the bullet soared straight into Athrun's left shoulder sending the ZAFT pilot falling onto the ground his right had clutching at his wound. Before Flay could fire again, this time resolving not to miss her intended target, she was tackled to the ground by Kisaka and Cagalli.

While Flay was on the ground she attempted to aim the weapon she had 'borrowed' at Athrun's body, hoping that she'd be able to kill him before Cagalli and Kisaka could stop her. However Kisaka managed to pry the weapon from Flay's hands before she could even attempt such a thing. Flay attempted to get the gun back from the Orb soldier but was unable to as Cagalli kept a firm grip on her arms as she secured them behind her back even as Flay kept screaming her lungs out, demanding that Cagalli and Kisaka let her kill Athrun.

"I'll, kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!" Flay screamed "He has to DIE!" after a long eight or nine seconds Flay's screams of hatred and demands for blood turned into quiet sobs as she continued to let out her grief and sadness. As Flay continued to cry she eventually stopped struggling.

Nathan meanwhile walked right over to Athrun who was still clutching at his shoulder and groaning in pain. The Raven pilot aimed his pistol right at the bastard's head and began to pull the trigger that would send a bullet straight through it. However before he could finish pulling the trigger Nathan felt, conflicted. A part of him, most likely his conscience made him hesitate while another, his anger and hatred wanted nothing more than to have Athrun die a slow, agonizing death.

Eventually Nathan's conscience won out and the Raven pilot put his weapon back in its holster. Nathan felt…strange. Most of the time whenever Nathan found himself in a situation like this he would simply allow his rage and hatred to run wild and kill whoever was responsible for causing him or others pain.

What was going on?

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p> 


	27. Search Patterns

Armored Seed

Chapter 27

Search Patterns

* * *

><p>-Orb, Echo Search and Rescue Aircraft, Currently En-Route to Orb Naval Carrier-<p>

* * *

><p>An uncomfortable silence was hanging in the inside of the Echo S&amp;R unit. No one had uttered a so much as a single word sincethey had brought Athrun aboard and left the island behind them. The only sound that could actually be heard without too much difficulty aside from the rumbling of the engines were from Flay who was still sobbing while Cagalli did her best to comfort the crying girl. Unfortunately Cagalli's efforts did very little to improve Flay's current state.<p>

Sitting directly across from them was Athrun, strapped securely in one of the chairs with his hands cuffed behind his back while a bandage was wrapped around his shoulder wound. Thankfully it seemed that Athrun wouldn't need to go into surgery due to the fact that the bullet went straight through and out the other side without hitting a bone or an artery, however the wound would definitely end up scarring over but that mattered little at the moment to anyone.

When Athrun had first been strapped in he had mildly struggled in his restraints for a little while before giving up in realization that there was no way he could free himself at the moment. And besides even if Athrun somehow did manage to get out of the restraints, it was highly doubtful that he could manage to overpower all of them despite his military training.

Seeing as how Flay had shown a clear desire to brutally murder Athrun, it had been decided that it would be best for the both Flay and Athrun if they didn't leave her alone with him. Cagalli had volunteered to keep an eye on the girl while the Echo made its way back to the Orb carrier. Besides what Flay needed right now more than anything was a shoulder to cry on and Cagalli was more than willing to help the grieving young woman in that regard.

Ironically, despite being there mainly to prevent Flay from trying to murder Athrun again, Cagalli couldn't deny that she too wanted nothing more than to beat the living crap out of the young man that she once held in moderately high regard. Thankfully she managed to mentally restrain herself from harming the bastard by comforting the still grieving girl.

Athrun meanwhile had been watching the two of them and was wondering just what kind of connection was between the crying girl and Kira. They had to have been really, really good friends at least. Hell, maybe they were even in a romantic relationship.

However Athrun quickly stamped out that last possibility. Back when Athrun and Kira had been attending the same school on Copernicus, Kira was always unbelievably shy around other people, especially those that were of the opposite sex. In fact Kira's face would always turn the color of an overly ripe tomato whenever a girl started to so much as take a glance at him. His former childhood friend must have somehow gotten over his timidity around girls sometime after he had transferred out of Copernicus.

The question of who this girl was to Kira continued to eat away at him for several minutes. Eventually, acting out on pure impulse, Athrun spoke up in an attempt to get some answers from the girl. "Hey" he called out causing Flay to stop crying into Cagalli's shoulder and give the young man sitting across from them a very angry, hate filled glare that sent chills running down Athrun's spine but he managed to keep these feelings from showing to his captors.

"How exactly did you know Kira?" he asked. The red haired girl's glare intensified tenfold as she shot up out of her seat and started to approach him "Don't you _dare_ insult Kira by speaking his name you bastard! Even after all this time, Kira still considered you a friend even when he was on the Archangel and in return you _murdered_ him!" she screamed even as tears spilled down her face.

Athrun's formerly calm façade almost instantly contorted into one of anger "I gave Kira several chances to leave that ship, I even told him that I'd have to shoot him down if he didn't leave the Archangel and he still stayed on that ship. What in the hell did he think was going to end up happening?!" Athrun demanded his expression changing to one of hostility.

Flay's sad/furious look didn't falter as she continued "The only reason that Kira was on that ship and piloting that mobile suit was because several of his friends' from school were on it you son of a bitch!" she stated before continuing "You know I've lost almost everything I loved because of this stupid war, first my dad and now you've killed the person I fell in love with" she stated. Athrun's eyes widened considerably at the new revelation "You and Kira were…" he trailed off having failed to found the words he needed to say.

"Yes, we were in love!" Flay all but screamed. Before the red haired girl could say any more Cagalli stood up and put a hand on Flay's shoulder in an attempt to try and calm the girl down "Flay, calm down, screaming at him isn't going to help the situation" for a moment Flay didn't speak, instead she just stared at Athrun with a hate filled look for a few moments. Eventually Flay reluctantly did as was requested of her, never once breaking her glare with the prisoner that was seated right across from them as she took her seat.

Once Flay was strapped back into her seat they heard Kisaka's voice coming from the cockpit "Hey is everything okay back there?" he asked sounding concerned about their safety. There wasn't even a moment's hesitation as Cagalli answered "Everything's fine Kisaka" she called back.

"Are you sure? I heard yelling" he said sounding a little on the doubting side. Cagalli just gave the man the same answer she did just a few seconds before and this time it seemed that Kisaka had finally accepted her answer.

Cagalli settled her gaze from the direction of the cockpit and back to the prisoner. She was determined to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn't try anything stupid before they reached the carrier. However she didn't really need to watch him overmuch considering that Flay was still giving Athrun that same hate filled glare.

* * *

><p>It took almost an hour for them to finally return to the Orb aircraft carrier and save for that one confrontation that Athrun had with Flay, it was a relatively quiet trip. Once they were back on board the carrier Athrun was taken to sick-bay to get his wounds looked at before being taken to the ship's brig. Nathan and the others were given temporary housing in the guest quarters of the ship while captain Hauser had the search and rescue teams recalled and prepared to have recovery teams sent out to secure the wreckage of both the Strike Gundam as well as the Skygrasper.<p>

It had been almost three hours since their return to the ship and almost everyone was trying to get some rest in the quarters that they had been given since they had been up and about for most of the day. The only one of their group that wasn't resting was Nathan as he was currently on the bridge of the ship looking over the shoulder of the ship's navigation officer.

At first Nathan hadn't been allowed onto the ship's bridge by the ship's XO since non-Orb military officers weren't cleared to be in some areas of the ship without the direct permission of the captain. This resulted in Nathan having to locate the captain's office in order to get permission from the man to use the ship's navigational equipment. This proved to be very a very tedious task that he had to undertake. Especially when one considered the fact that the inner workings of the carrier didn't have so much as an inkling in common with the Zeus or the Archangel in which Nathan was so accustomed to traversing.

Because of this, it took him quite a while to find the captain's office just to obtain permission to enter the bridge and have a look at the navigational equipment. However if this helped find Kira than it was far more than worth the irritating task it was becoming.

The console in front of Nathan and the ship's navigation officer had a map of the area on the monitor with weather patterns and ocean currents highlighted on the screen. The map was almost a maze of a wide variety colors that outlined what Nathan assumed to be things like wind conditions, sea level and ocean currents. At first everything on the map was a little overwhelming and it was difficult for Nathan to fully understand all of the strange symbols that he was seeing in front of him.

The Raven pilot looked over at the bridge officer and asked "I don't suppose you could tell me what exactly I'm looking at here?" gesturing at the map in front of him. The bridge officer gave Nathan a very annoyed look. This made it more than obvious that he had explained this sort of thing to a number of other members of the ship on more than just one occasion. Which of course meant that since he had done it so many times before it had left him weary of repeating himself to yet another person.

"What you're seeing here is a digital representation of weather patterns during the time period that your ship had lost all contact with ensign Kira Yamato. This outline over here is the island where you found him" he said pointing to one of the smaller islands on the top right edge of the screen which had been highlighted in a gold shade. The officer then gestured over to a thin winding green line that lead far, far away from the island.

"And this is the ocean's current that passes around the island. If Kira ejected like you proposed he did then there's a ninety nine percent chance that he would most likely have landed in this area" he said before clicking on the spot changing the representation of the ocean current changed from green to orange. . The now freelance mercenary followed the digital representation of the ocean's towards the destination, when he saw where the ocean's current would take his friend Nathan's eyes widened by a small fraction in surprise.

Nathan looked at the bridge officer with a very serious expression "Are you sure that this information is accurate?" he asked to which the man gave him a look that said "What are you stupid? Of course it is". Nathan stared at the destination that would be where the ocean current would take Kira thinking that somehow, the bridge officer had made some kind of mistake.

After all the odds of Kira getting to that particular location were astronomical at best. However Nathan couldn't deny the facts that were staring him right in the face. Judging by the trajectory Kira was probably now back in the Marshall Islands of Orb. More specifically a certain beach that was ridiculously close to the orphanage that Nathan had called home for most of his life.

"Thank you for all your help" said Nathan before he all but sprinted out of the room to go and meet with his friends. He had to let them know the news regarding Kira's whereabouts and hopefully get permission from the captain to borrow one of their Echo search and rescue units again.

* * *

><p>-North America, Atlantic Federation San-Francisco Naval Base-<p>

* * *

><p>The Atlantic Federation's primary sea based naval yard was located in San-Francisco. The yard itself was for lack of better terms, massive. The naval yard covered almost all of the city's already enormous harbor. There were perhaps hundreds of Atlantic Federation ships that had set up anchor at the naval yard, from small patrol boats to massive aircraft carriers.<p>

The naval yard also wasn't just restricted to ships, there were many hangers, each one contained a veritable legion of Skygraspers as well as various mobile armors. Many had stated that only those with a death wish would dare to attack the San-Francisco Naval Base. _'Which was why this was the perfect location to construct the vessel which would be my holy sword that shall wipe the filth of space from the universe'_ thought Muruta Azrael with a disturbing smile as he made his way through one of the far larger hangers of the base.

Muruta was flanked by several bodyguards as well as one of his personal aides. It took them almost thirty minutes before they reached the inside of the hanger. This was due to the almost absurdly high number of security checkpoints between the entrance to the naval yard and Azrael's destination.

Once Azrael and his entourage finally finished passing the final security checkpoint the doors that lead into the hanger opened to reveal the ship he had been longing to see up close for himself. The Dominion.

After the construction of the first Archangel class assault ship had been finished, Azrael had ordered the construction of a second ship which had recently been christened as the Dominion. The Dominion was not simply a recreation of the first Archangel, not by a long shot. It may have shared the same hull design as the first Archangel but there were a number of improvements that Azrael had spared no expense on.

Any flaw that had been found in the original design was rectified no matter how small it was. Newer more powerful weapons had been added and those that were already there had been enhanced. The ship's reactor core was capable of producing almost two and a half times the amount of power needed to run the first Archangel and the ship's armor had almost twice the strength as the original ship.

Azrael and his entourage approached the Dominion in order to get a better look. The political leader of the Atlantic Federation approached the guard rail and placed a hand on the Dominion's cold dark hull. It was far more impressive than those Gundams that the other weapon's designers had been creating.

According to the construction crews the Dominion along with the new prototype Gundams and Strike Dagger mobile suits would all be ready for use just after the battle of JOSH-A. This would make the next step of his plans to purge the Earth of all of its impurities far easier than he had initially thought.

Azrael was brought out of his thoughts when his aide cleared his throat and spoke to the leader of the Atlantic Federation "Mister Azrael, the administrator of this facility would like to give us a tour of the Dominion" she said. Azrael's already smug look grew as he took his hand off the hull and turned around to see the administrator in his work clothes standing at attention.

"That would be perfect administrator, please, do lead the way" he said gesturing to the loading mechanism that would take them to the interior of the ship. As they headed towards the lift Muruta Azrael became lost in his own twisted thoughts once again. _'It's only a matter of time, soon the genetic stain on humanity will at last be removed and the human race shall become pure once again'_

Little did Azrael know that there was a certain someone in the PLANTs was thinking about a plan that was just as nefarious and twisted as his.

* * *

><p>-Orb Naval Aircraft Carrier, Brig-<p>

* * *

><p>The aircraft carrier's brig was only moderately sized seeing as how there wasn't really much of a need to house prisoners of war when the carrier belonged to a neutral nation. In fact the only time that the brig had ever been really used was when two or more of the crewmembers got into a fight or a similar altercation but even then that was incredibly rare. In fact there was only one occupant in the brig at the moment . A ZAFT pilot by the name of Athrun Zala.<p>

Currently Athrun was laying down on the bottom bunk of his confines looking up for what felt like hours. He was thinking about what had happened since his last fight with Kira. It had been relatively easy for Athrun to escape the blast radius before the both the Aegis and the Strike went up in flames.

Since that had occurred he had spent a little over twenty-four hours on that island near the what was left of both machines. Athrun had figured that when Carpentaria base sent out their search and rescue teams, the best place he could possibly be would be as close to the wreckage of the destroyed machines as possible.

Athrun was right about the rescue part but instead of being found by ZAFT he'd been found by the Red Eyed Devil and his allies. Then there was Kira's apparent girlfriend, that red haired girl who nearly ended up killing him when Athrun told the group that he had killed Kira in combat. True Athrun should have expected a reaction like that from the girl given how she'd been acting before he told her that he had killed his former best friend.

The young Coordinator was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the door leading into the brig slide open and idly wondered who was coming to visit him. After all the last time someone had visited him it was just a guard coming to deliver his food and since it had only been an hour and a half since then it was unlikely that it was time for his next meal. so who was going to visit him now? He pondered even as a pair of footsteps made their way towards his cell.

Only a few seconds later Athrun received an answer in the form of Cagalli Attha. The girl seemed just as angry as she had been when they were on the Echo. "Why did you do it?" she asked. At first Athrun didn't really seem to understand the question that he had just been asked and looked at the girl strangely as he gave his response "Why did I do what?" he asked. Cagalli's glare intensified at that little question "Why did you murder your best friend?!" she demanded.

Athrun's look changed from puzzled to angry in an instant "Kira joined up with the Earth Forces, fought alongside that psychopath Fletcher and helped murder several of my comrades, the last straw was reached when he helped Fletcher murder Nichol! What the hell did he think was going to happen that I was going to just let Kira off because of that!?" he yelled as he hopped off of the bed and approached the glass wall that lead into the cell.

In Cagalli all but snarled at Athrun as she made her next comment "So Kira was just supposed to let Flay get killed along with the other refugees that your 'comrades' murdered when they were heading back to Orb?" she hissed. Cagalli had heard rumor while she was on the Archangel that the reason that Nathan had been gunning for the Duel so much was because the pilot had shot down a shuttle carrying survivors from the battle at Heliopolis.

That last comment thoroughly confused Athrun "What the hell are you talking about?!" he asked almost insulted at the insinuation that Athrun would murder civilians "What murdered Orb refugees?" Cagalli raised an eyebrow at that "Oh, I'm sorry" she said her voice dripping with anger "I didn't know that you had no idea that your friend in the Duel shot down a shuttle carrying almost a hundred refugees as it headed back to Orb" she explained.

Athrun couldn't keep the shock/realization from overcoming his facial features. The shuttle that Yzak had shot down was full of civilians? At least that helped explain why the Red Eyed Devil had been especially gunning for the white haired boy ever since they landed on Earth. But still it was disturbing to say the least that the entire time that they were fighting in the void of space they were targeting a ship that had been filled with civilians of a neutral country.

The prisoner of war was speechless, there wasn't a single word that he could say in response to that. If Athrun had known about this he would have told commander Le Creuset to go to hell. However nobody said anything about there being refugees on board. In fact Athrun had thought that the 'friends' that Kira had kept talking about were members of the Atlantic Federation military, not a bunch of civilian refugees from a neutral space colony.

That whole time that Athrun was fighting Kira, Athrun had been wrong. He had been wrong about the entire situation he thought that Kira had found himself in. Cagalli looked right at the troubled boy who was on the verge of tears and said "My father had this saying he'd always tell me, 'vengeance doesn't bring peace, it just creates more death and suffering'."

With that having been said Cagalli walked over to Athrun's cell before she fished something out of one of the pockets that were on the combat vest she almost always seemed to be wearing. The young woman then deposited it into the small chute (I'm not really sure what the thing is called that allows people to deposit certain items into prison cells but I'm just going to call it a chute) that lead into Athrun's cell.

Athrun moved over to the chute and took out the item that had been deposited. It was a necklace. Athrun looked over at Cagalli with a curious look on his face "A necklace?" he asked almost incredulously.

"It's my Haumea amulet it's a good luck charm and it should protect you" she said before she started to make her way to the door. Athrun looked at the amulet for a moment before looking up at the back of the retreating Cagalli utterly dumbfounded "Why would you want me to be protected even though I killed Kira?" he asked.

Cagalli stopped dead in her tracks and tilted her head downwards before she let out a sad sigh "I just don't want to have to watch anyone else die" she stated simply before finally walking out of the brig and left Athrun to his thoughts.

The instant that Cagalli had gotten outside of the ship's brig she heard two pairs of footsteps rapidly approaching. Cagalli turned to see both Flay and Nathan all but sprinting in her direction. Once they were a few meters away they slowed to a stop. Flay was attempting to catch her breath, clearly she still wasn't used to running around. Cagalli gave them both a perplexed look "What's going on?" she asked.

The first one to speak was Flay who was clearly very anxious about something "It's Nathan, he thinks he may know where Kira is!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with hope. Cagalli looked confused by that declaration to say the least "But I thought Athrun said-" she started but was cut off by Nathan before she could finish that sentence.

"Unless Athrun somehow conjured up a body out of thin air between the time that he was locked up in the brig and your little chat with him, Kira is still considered alive and I have an idea as to where he is right now" Nathan explained before he gestured Flay and Cagalli to follow him as he started to make his way towards one of the surface hatches.

"Come on, Kisaka's waiting for us on the Helipad, we're going to the Marshall Islands on Orb." he said before they began to make their way for the surface.

* * *

><p>-Orb, Marshall Islands, Reverend Malchio's Orphanage Three Hours Later-<p>

* * *

><p>For the past thirty six hours Kira had remained on the infirmary bed completely unconscious. The only movements he gave were breathing, rapid eye movement behind his eyelids and the occasional mumble. The wounds that he had sustained had been cleaned and bandaged accordingly.<p>

Despite this, the poor boy still hadn't woken up. Malchio had both himself and the orphanage's staff working in shifts should the young man finally come to. Currently it was the shift for reverend Malchio as well as Lacus who had suspected that Kira would probably need a friendly face to wake up to.

They were also hoping for some answers regarding some questions that had been plaguing the two ever since Kira washed up on the beach the day before. How had he gotten from the Archangel to Orb? Where was the ship now? Had it been destroyed and if so did anyone else make it out alive?

However the unconscious young man lying on the bed just a few feet away held no answers for the time being. Te good reverend had told Lacus that they should all be content with the fact that at least Kira was still alive. However the poor girl still couldn't help but worry about everyone else that was onboard the Archangel. The one that occupied her thoughts the most was Nathan. Almost everyone thought that he was just some cold calculating killing machine. Even Nathan thought himself to be a monster but that simply wasn't true.

Underneath Nathan's cold and almost uncaring attitude there was a kind and truly noble heart. It just had to be brought to back up to the surface again. There was also something about him that made Lacus' heart flutter every time she pictured him in her mind. Sometimes Lacus wondered if Nathan was thinking about her from time to time as well.

Malchio looked over at Lacus who was sitting very quietly in her seat and it wasn't difficult to tell that she was deep in thought. Lately Lacus had started to space out every now and then. However Malchio doubted this had anything to do with Kira since she had started a few days _before_ the young Coordinator had washed up on the beach. In fact Malchio had noticed this little change in behavior after Nathan had left Orb.

It was quite obvious (to Malchio at least) that Lacus had become completely smitten with the boy judging by her actions during the time that he had spent with them. Lacus almost never left his side except when he said he wanted some time to himself. In fact, when they got back from their date the girl was practically glowing with happiness. Nathan meanwhile still had that same neutral look on his face but since Malchio had known the boy for most of his life it was relatively easy for the reverend to tell that he had an enjoyable time too.

Bringing himself back to the present, Malchio saw that the girl that was sitting nearby looked like she was about to doze off any second now. Malchio was about to suggest that Lacus go and get some rest on a nice comfortable bed while he kept an eye on their unconscious guest. But before he could do so he heard a faint roar coming from outside that seemed to be getting louder with every passing moment.

At first Malchio and Lacus thought that it was just an airplane flying overhead but the noise was getting far too close for it to just be a passing jet. No it sounded different, and it seemed to be much closer to the ground. Curious, Malchio got up off of his chair and approached one of the nearby windows and had a look outside.

Whatever it was the old priest had been expecting it certainly hadn't been this. There was an Orb military aircraft on the grounds behind the orphanage. The craft's landing gear was out and the aircraft was slowly making its way down to the surface. Malchio heard the sound of footsteps from behind him.

When the man turned he saw that the chair that Lacus had been occupying was now empty and Malchio let out a sigh before he too started to make his way for the exit. Upon exiting the nurse's office Malchio quickly made his way towards the rear entrance of the orphanage. As he made his way there he spotted a large number of the children running through the hallways trying to get to the windows so that they could get a better look at what was going on outside.

Malchio made his way passed the kids and got to the door that lead outside. Once he was outside he saw that Lacus was out there and was standing in front of the aircraft. For a brief moment Malchio wondered how on earth that girl was able to get out there so quickly when she was wearing a skirt that almost reached her heels and shoes that weren't designed for running.

However Lacus' ability to quickly get from one area to another while wearing such garments wasn't important at the moment. What was important was the fact that there was a military aircraft parked just outside the orphanage. Malchio made his way over to where Lacus was standing and saw that the aircraft had already landed and the noise being generated by the engines had started to die down a little.

After the sound being emanated from the engines had finally ceased, the ramp that lead into the aircraft slowly lowered. Once the ramp had fully lowered onto the ground both Lacus and the good reverend were surprised to see a group of four people, three of which looked to be around her age.

Two of the individuals Lacus hadn't seen before in her life. One was a girl around her age with neck length blond hair and a soldier's uniform, the other was a man with tanned skin and long black hair that was wearing a soldiers uniform as well. Their other two guests Lacus had recognized almost immediately. Flay Allster who was someone that Kira had moaned while he was asleep, and the boy that had been occupying most of her thoughts as of late. Nathan Fletcher.

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><p>To Be Continued.<p>

A/N: Yes I know that you all are probably going to be angry with me since this chapter was short and you all had been waiting a long time but I promise that I'll do my best to try and make the next one longer.


	28. Another Reunion

Armored Seed

Chapter 28

Another Reunion

A/N: sorry this took so long but I've been working on not only my other fanfic but real life also takes a hefty priority over writing fanfiction.

Also for those of you who choose to review my work I really don't want things like "This is good keep going" what I want from my reviewers are the reasons as to why they like it and what I can do to improve the story. I want constructive criticism.

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><p>-Orb Marshall Islands, Reverend Malchio's Orphanage-<p>

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><p>To say that Lacus was surprised was an understatement. She had not expected Nathan to return after only a couple of days, especially not in an Orb military aircraft, let alone with some added company. Flay Allster was there too as well as another girl who had neck length blonde hair that she hadn't met before.<p>

On the left of the blonde haired girl was a tall muscular man with hair that reached a just past his shoulders. Both Lacus and Malchio instantly knew why the four of them were here. They must have managed to track down Kira's location somehow. Malchio however knew that Kira's comrades would find them eventually, more than likely with Nathan leading the way. The boy never liked to leave anyone behind if he could help it. The middle aged reverend stepped forward and spoke up in a polite voice "Nathan it's good to see-" Malchio started to say but Nathan cut the priest off before he could finish his sentence.

"I'm very sorry reverend but now's really not time for pleasantries, it's taken us several hours to get here and we're all in a bit of a hurry. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to get straight to the point. Have you or have you not seen a boy about a year younger with short brown hair wearing an Atlantic Federation pilot suit ?" he asked with more than just a hint of anxiety in his voice.

"Why yes, Kira's inside resting" said Lacus gesturing to the large building behind them. That statement was a half-truth; Kira still hadn't regained consciousness. If Kira was still out of it by tomorrow afternoon then they'd have no other choice but to take him to the nearest hospital which was almost ten miles away from where the orphanage was located. Hopefully that would end up being unnecessary.

The very millisecond that Flay heard that Kira might still be alive the tears she had been holding back for the past couple of hours finally started to slide down her cheeks. However these weren't tears of sadness, but were instead of joy. For almost two and a half days, Flay had been put through hell, wondering to herself if the boy she loved was still alive or not.

Flay all but sprinted over to Lacus and Malchio and started to beg them to take her to Kira. At first Lacus and the old reverend were taken aback by the tearful display they were being given. It took a moment for the two of them to collect themselves but once they did the one that spoke up was the good reverend "Yes he is we can show you to him if you want" he said before he lead the group inside the orphanage.

As they were lead into the building that Kira had been occupying for the past couple of days, Cagalli looked over at Nathan and thought about some of his more recent actions as of late. It was easy for many to assume him to be just a blood thirsty maniac given all the things that she had heard about him. However, after Flay had told her about how Nathan defied orders and stole Atlantic Federation property in an attempt to look for Kira, coupled with some of the other actions that she had heard about him doing ever since stepping aboard the Archangel.

She had first heard about Nathan's actions regarding Lacus. How he risked both his career and his life to get her off the Archangel given how if she had stayed would most likely had ended up being used as a political hostage by the Earth Forces to try and _negotiate_ a surrender out of the PLANTs. There was also the time that Nathan had offered Ahmed a quick and painless way out of his suffering when he was slowly bleeding to death due to a punctured artery on the desert sands. At the time she had been furious at Nathan for his actions, but Cagalli soon understood the reasoning behind his actions even if she still loathed them.

As they reached the orphanage's infirmary, a feeling of grim anticipation came over the guests. They were all worried about the condition that Kira was in at the moment. Sure they knew that his condition more than likely wasn't life threatening, seeing as how if it was the priest probably would have called the local hospital. But this didn't keep them from worrying about their friend.

The door to the infirmary opened relatively slowly and with a slight creek. It almost felt as though the door itself was trying to make the atmosphere even more tense than it already was. Once it was finally opened Lacus and Malchio lead them through the infirmary until they reached one of the beds where Kira lay, much of his chest as well portions of his arms and legs were wrapped in bandages and there was even a small bandage wrapped around his head.

Upon seeing her boyfriend tears began to form once again in Flay's eyes. It seemed that this kind of thing was starting to become a routine. They would go someplace, fight against somebody, move on and eventually Kira would end up injured somehow and Flay would become worried about him. Flay reluctantly cast her gaze from the unconscious young man and directly over at Malchio with a worried expression "H-how is he?" she stuttered, barely able to form any coherent words.

The reverend gave the girl a reassuring look "Other than a lot of cuts and bruises, our friend seems to have been knocked unconscious at some point if the several nasty injuries on his head is anything to go by, but there isn't anything that could prove to be life threatening, I assure you" he explained. Flay seemed to calm down a little and gazed over at the seat that was by Kira's bed.

"I-I want to stay with him, please" she requested as she wiped away some of the tears from her eyes. She hadn't come this far just to leave the boy she'd fallen in love with now.

Malchio nodded in understanding, "I don't see why not" he said before gesturing to one of the many unused beds in the room "If you feel tired then you are free to use one of the other beds we have here in the infirmary" Flay then proceeded to take a seat on the chair and got as close as she could to Kira as she his hand in hers.

Turning away from the romantic display in front of him he looked over to the rest of the group who were standing nearby before he gestured to the door that lead out of the infirmary "If the rest of you will come with me I can show you to your rooms" said the priest. Nathan took a quick glance at Cagalli, Lacus and Kisaka and saw that they were just as reluctant to leave Kira alone as he was.

"Reverend Malchio I think that I speak for everyone when I say that we're all probably not going to leave this room for a while" stated Nathan. The reverend gave the group a smile "Well Nathan if you or any of your friends need anything, you know where to find me" he said before he walked out of the room leaving the group to their own devices. After the reverend left Lacus turned to face Cagalli and Kisaka with a friendly expression, hoping to at least lighten the mood a little "I'm sorry but in all of the commotion that happened earlier I neglected to introduce myself, my name is Lacus Clyne what's yours?" she asked holding out her hand.

Cagalli took it and the two shook hands for a moment before releasing it, "My name's Cagalli Attha and this is Kisaka" she said gesturing towards the much taller man who was sitting on one of the beds behind her. Lacus smiled once again "It's very nice to meet the two of you" she stated while Cagalli spoke up again, wanting to get a question answered.

"Lacus, you wouldn't happen to be the daughter of the PLANTs' supreme chairman would you?" Cagalli asked. If that was indeed the case, then why would the daughter of a very powerful politician from the PLANTs be doing in an orphanage in Orb. Lacus nodded "Yes my father is part of the PLANTs council and before you ask, reverend Malchio is a very good friend of the family and I'm just here visiting" she explained.

Somehow Cagalli got the feeling that there was more to it than that but decided not to press the issue at the moment. Instead she opted to ask about how she and the reverend had managed to come across Kira. Lacus explained that she had found him washed up on the shore while she was out by the beach. That answer seemed to satisfy Cagalli but she still had several questions she felt she needed to ask the pink haired pop star. However those questions would probably have to end up having to wait until morning. Given all of the…excitement that had happened in the past several hours, Cagalli was very tired and it wasn't difficult to tell that everyone else who had been a part of their little rescue team was too.

The tomboy princess let out a somewhat soft yawn before making her way to one of the nearby beds. Cagalli glanced at everyone one final time before finally hitting the sack. Nathan was sitting down on one of the beds looking a little tired himself while Lacus stayed relatively close by to him but not uncomfortably so, Kisaka was of course watching over Cagalli from the opposite side of the room. Flay meanwhile was gently holding Kira's hand with tears still coming down her face. After she was done checking on how well her friends were faring Cagalli closed her eyes and soon found herself asleep.

As Nathan sat down on one of the bed's Lacus walked up to him "Nathan how exactly did you get here?" Lacus asked her curiosity having gotten the better of her "Did the captain give you permission to rejoin the search?"

Nathan bit his lip as he tried to figure out how to respond to that question and quickly decided to just be blunt "No she didn't, Flay and I commandeered Mu La Flaga's Skygrasper and left the Archangel against orders and before I left I told commander Hackett who was ordering me to return, that he could consider this to be my resignation" he explained.

Lacus honestly didn't know what to say in response. Nathan had just thrown away his career in the Black Skulls just so that he could help find one of his friends. There was something to be said about that, but all the girl could really find herself saying was "I see" Lacus really wanted to voice her concerns to Nathan like what he intended on doing before asking "So what are you going to do now?" Lacus inquired.

For a few long moments, Nathan was silent as he contemplated some of his options, which weren't very many. Although the Lucifer was 'technically' his own property it was nearly useless in its current state and it would require a lot of time and money to repair.

Although technically Nathan did have quite a bit of money in his bank account since he rarely went out on shore leave and the only time he ever really spent his cash was either on food or on ammo and repairs for the Lucifer. Nathan could technically set himself up as a freelance operative but before he could do that he'd have to reacquire the Lucifer which was currently in the hands of the Atlantic Federation Navy and Nathan found it pretty unlikely that they'd just hand it over to him after stealing commander La Flaga's Skygrasper.

For the moment he really didn't have much of an idea what his next move was "I'll see if I can get back to you on that one" said Nathan. The two said would say nothing to one another for the rest of the night.

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><p>-Archangel Bridge Eight Hours Later-<p>

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><p>The bridge of the Archangel had been working in a tense silence ever since the incident involving the now ex-Black Skulls lieutenant Nathan Fletcher and the AWOL ensign Flay Allster had hijacked a Skygrasper several hours earlier. Almost everyone on the bridge understood and there were a few that even condoned his actions. After all Kira Yamato was one the main reasons that they had made it as far as they had and just leaving him behind like that left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths. Despite their obvious dislike of leaving someone behind they were still soldiers and as such were obligated to follow whatever order they had been given even if they disliked it.<p>

Captain Murrue Ramius looked out past the thick glass that was in front of the bridge and at the seemingly endless expanse of ocean out in front of them and thought about some of the information that she had just been given by the navigational officer. According to him, if they continued their current speed and heading then they would end up reaching JOSH-A in roughly forty eight hours. It'd felt like a lifetime since their journey began back in Heliopolis and now they were almost at the end.

Much of the crew felt uplifted upon hearing the news but captain Murrue gave the order to remain on full scale alert until they reached the relative safety of Alaska. If ZAFT was going to pull a last minute ambush on them, then now would definitely be the time before they were too far into Atlantic Federation territory. So far there hadn't been any suspicious readings on either the thermal or sonar detection system but that didn't mean that there still wasn't anyone other there past the ship's sensor range. In times like these it was probably better to play it safe than to take any unnecessary risks.

Earlier Murrue had heard about the…incident involving the prisoner they had captured and crewman Miriallia Haw. Murrue's first response was to have the girl thrown brig until they reached JOSH-A. but this changed after Murrue had been told by medical officer Carmen Leone that the girl had been going through an extraordinary amount of stress ever since Tolle Koenig and Kira Yamato had been declared MIA. That combined with certain 'comments' that the prisoner had made towards her had pushed the girl passed her breaking point.

Although this convinced Murrue not to have the girl thrown in the brig, Miriallia Haw wasn't going to get off free and clear either. Mir was to be confined to the crew deck and was not to have any contact with the prisoner. She was also going to have to take a psychological evaluation from the Archangel's acting chief medical officer to see if the girl was still mentally fit to continue performing her duties aboard the Archangel and until then would continue to be confined to the crew deck.

The captain broke herself out of her thoughts when she heard the door to the bridge slide open. Murrue turned around and saw captain Hackett making his way towards her with a relatively calm expression on his face. The man was roughly three or four meters away from the captain of the Archangel when he started speaking "Captain Ramius, on behalf of the Black Skulls, I would like to inform you that lieutenant Fletcher will offer any reparations for any at all damage done to commander La Flaga's Skygrasper and I'll make sure that he brings it back with a full tank of fuel"

That comment took everyone on the bridge completely by surprise. It was from everyone's understanding that Nathan had resigned from the Black Skulls. "Really, I thought that we were all under the impression that he had resigned from the Black Skulls" said Murrue even as a mischievous smile formed on Hackett's face "Ordinarily he would be, however Nathan had apparently neglected to file out the necessary paperwork for resigning his post with the Black Skulls, and although normally what he did would count as desertion, Nathan's saved up a number of vacation days over the past two years so I don't really see a reason as to why he can't use them"

It was at this point that Mu La Flaga, who was leaning against one of the walls decided to join in the conversation "Wait a minute, you guys have vacation days?" Mu asked incredulously. Hackett chuckled as he was under the assumption that Mu was just joking and not actually serious about the question.

"Well of course we do, once every year the Zeus had to go in for repairs and retrofits which could take roughly two weeks, during that time the crew is allowed to go anywhere the wish so long as they return before the two week deadline runs out" he explained while examining Mu's almost envious look "I take it that the Atlantic Federation doesn't really have those?" asked Hackett.

Mu sighed "Yeah, something like that" he grumbled. During war time when resources were stretched thin, the closest thing that Earth Forces soldiers ever really got to vacation days was probably one or two days worth of shore leave but even then that could sometimes be pretty rare. In fact Mu was struggling to recall the last time that he'd had any shore leave before becoming a part of the Archangel's crew and found that the last time he had shore leave was a scant couple of weeks before he got assigned to the Grimaldi Front.

It was times like these that Mu somewhat envied those that were in the private sector of warfare. They got better benefits, a bigger paycheck (most of the time at least) _and_ actual vacation days. _'Those lucky bastards'_ Mu thought to himself. Mu's thoughts soon turned away from such petty things and instead to more important matters.

Even if Nathan managed to return the Skygrasper undamaged and with a full tank of gas it was more than likely that he would still be charged with theft of military resources which had a very hefty prison sentence. Flay also faced similar charges as well as a dishonorable discharge from the Atlantic Federation Navy. However anything like that happening to Flay was pretty unlikely seeing as how her father had been a very influential man with a lot of supporters in the government as well as a number of less than respectable groups. If anything almost all of them would probably want to use her to help with anti-Coordinator propaganda.

Mu almost snorted at the thought of that happening. Ever since Heliopolis Flay Allster had ended up losing almost any shred of prejudice she may have had towards Coordinators, hell she had even fell in love with one. It was pretty obvious that any attempt to get Flay to go back to her old prejudices would probably end up being nothing other than a fool's errand.

The ace combat pilot turned his thoughts away from such things and back to the lovely looking captain that was sitting just a few meters away. Mu started to ponder the best possible way he could get her to have nice dinner with him once they finally reached Alaska.

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><p>-Orb, Reverend Malchio's Orphanage-<p>

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><p>Morning had at last come to the orphanage in the Marshall Islands of Orb. The rays from the newly risen sun shined in through the windows of the infirmary of Reverend Malchio's orphanage. Eventually after the sun had risen high enough the rays that were shining into the infirmary struck a certain wounded Coordinator that had been unconscious for the past couple of days.<p>

As if the rays of the sun were instigating the young man to wake up the second that the rays of the sun reached Kira's face, the boy started to stir. After a few moments the young Coordinator's eyes slowly started to open up. Once Kira's eyes were fully open it took them a few moments to get readjusted to the lighting. As his eyes adjusted Kira felt several dull aches and pains throughout much of his body.

Kira quickly realized that he wasn't back on board the Archangel and he was no longer wearing a flight suit, his rescuers having felt the need to strip him out of his suit and put him into a hospital gown. The next thing he realized was that there was something applying a small amount of pressure to his right hand.

The young Coordinator turned his head to the right and saw Flay sitting on a chair fast asleep her hand intertwined with his. Flay must have been leaning forward when she had fallen asleep because her head and the upper portion of her torso were almost on top of the bed. Kira attempted to sit up a little despite the pain that came from his bandaged wounds. Before he could really do anything though a pair of hands gently grasped his un-bandaged shoulders and slowly pushed him back down onto the bed.

"Kira, you've been unconscious for the past couple of days, I would suggest that you refrain from any movements for a while, we don't want you to reopen any of your wounds" said a familiar voice. Kira turned to face the origin of the person who was speaking and saw Nathan standing just a couple of feet away from his bed.

Behind Nathan was Cagalli, Lacus and Kisaka. Cagalli was sitting down on one of the nearby beds while Kisaka leaned up against the wall. Lacus meanwhile was standing near Nathan and had a warm expression on her face. Kira was about to inquire what was going on and where he was, when he heard a pleasantly familiar voice coming from where Flay had been sleeping just a few moments before.

"KIRA!" Flay all but yelled in both relief and happiness. Flay quickly, yet gently embraced the boy in a hug even as tears began to spring up in both of their eyes. They had both been through quite the ordeal for the past couple of days and right now they both needed an anchor. Nathan sighed, at least Kira hadn't asked them about Tolle yet. That was a conversation he was definitely not looking forward to having with him.

As if some higher power were at work, the second that Nathan finished that last train of thought Kira and Flay reluctantly broke out of the embrace that they had found themselves in and the young Coordinator looked over at them with a worried gaze. Nathan braced himself for the next few words out of his mouth "What happened to Tolle? Is he okay?" Kira asked worriedly.

Almost everyone looked very uncomfortable at the question. The first one to respond was Nathan "I'm sorry Kira but Tolle didn't make it" he said in a very calm voice.

The reaction that Kira gave was almost instantaneous. Tears started to well up in his eyes as his mind tried to wrap around the fact that one of his closest friends back on Heliopolis had been killed by someone he had considered his best friend for several years. Emotions within him clashed with one another, sadness at Tolle's death and anger at the one who had killed him.

In a desperate attempt to provide some form of comfort to her boyfriend, Flay embraced him in a gentle hug, taking care to not touch any of the bandaged portions of his body.

Nathan meanwhile walked over to Lacus and the others "Let's give them some time alone for now" he muttered quietly before looking back over at Flay and Kira "If either of you need us, we'll be near" he said as softly as his stoic nature would allow him. Kira didn't give him any kind of a response that he could see since his head was buried in Flay's shoulder but the red haired girl gave Nathan a thankful expression.

The moment that they were out of the room Nathan spoke up "I'm going to head back to the Echo and let the Orb military know that the pilot that they've been searching for has been found, the rest of you should go and get some breakfast" he said, but before Nathan so much as take a step towards the entrance of the orphanage he felt someone grab his shoulder from behind.

As Nathan turned to look he saw Lacus giving him the exact same expression that Carmen would give him when she was displeased with him and was going to rant at him. Lacus' unknowing attempt at replicating that expression simply made the pink haired pop star look even cuter than she normally was. Nathan mentally shook his head, _'wait where had that thought come from?'_ he wondered but soon shook it off.

"You're not going anywhere until you've gotten some rest and had something to eat! You look like you're about to keel over!" she exclaimed worriedly. It was true, ever since Kira had gone MIA Nathan hadn't had any food or even a scant amount of rest and although he hated to admit it, the stress of the past couple of days had started to catch up with him but he still had a job to do.

"Lacus I'm fine, it'll only take a-" started Nathan before his stomach started growling. The other three occupants in the hallway all looked directly at Nathan who was trying his best not to appear embarrassed by the noise his stomach had just made. Lacus gave Nathan that same stern look and said "Well I guess that settles it, now let's get you some breakfast before you end up collapsing" the pink haired pop-star then proceeded to all but drag Nathan towards the dining room.

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><p>-Orb Aircraft Carrier, Launch Deck half an hour later-<p>

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><p>Atop an Orb aircraft carrier captain Hauser stood by the entrance that lead into the ship's interior in an almost statuesque fashion while he watched a ZAFT transport VTOL approach his ship. Alongside the captain were a pair of the ship's security officers who were standing directly behind the ship's latest guest, Athrun Zala. The young Coordinator was no longer wearing his ruined ZAFT flight suit, instead he wore a rather plain t-shirt and jeans that had been given to him after he had been brought aboard the ship. The boy's hands were also bound behind his back as a precaution given how he had given the group that had picked him up a small amount of trouble.<p>

Athrun hadn't uttered so much as a single word ever since Cagalli Attha had visited him last night right before she and the other guests aboard his ship had borrowed one of the Echo's to take back to the Marshall Islands in an attempt to track Kira down. Hauser hoped that the four of them were doing alright and that they had found the boy. It would have been quite the tragedy if all of their efforts into finding the lost pilot had gone to waste.

Hauser brought himself out of those thoughts and instead focused on some of the more recent events that had occurred. Almost immediately after Athrun had been brought aboard the ship, Hauser had his communications officer contact the Orb government and ask them what they were supposed to do with the boy. His superiors had told him that they were going to contact ZAFT's Carpentaria base and inform them that they had found their missing pilot and that they intended on releasing him into their custody.

The commander of Carpentaria base informed them that they would be sending a transport to the aircraft carrier in the morning to retrieve their lost pilot. The transport itself was already lowering it's landing gears as it slowly descended onto one of the clear VTOL landing pads. After the aircraft had finished its descent the ramp that lead directly into it lowered onto the surface of the ship. Several people then descended down the ramp and walked over to captain Hauser and his men.

There were two ZAFT infantrymen who were obviously sent along as an escort alongside two ZAFT officers. The younger of the two was wearing a uniform that identified him as a lieutenant. The boy had silver hair that was done into a bob-cut as well as a battle scar that reached from his forehead down to his cheek. The other officer was wearing a commander's uniform and was much older than the boy next to him, Hauser gauged the man to be in his mid to late forties. He had a neatly trimmed beard and balding head with a few grey strands among his moderately dark brown hair. Hauser recognized the man as commander Griffin of the Carpentaria base.

The other three individuals were obviously _not_ in ZAFT, in fact judging by the uniforms that they were wearing they were probably part of some PMC or something similar. The uniforms didn't really have any remarkable features aside from a symbol of a hydra on their shoulder pads.

After the guests had finished their descent down the aircraft's ramp they gave captain Hauser and his men a respectful salute. However the captain could easily tell that the silver haired boy was attempting to hold his anger in, and was (in Hauser's own opinion at least) doing a very poor job of it. But that wasn't a concern to the captain who then ceased his own salute.

The commander looked over at Athrun before cocking a brow at Hauser "May I ask why you felt the need to restrain lieutenant Zala?" he asked curiously while the silver haired boy next to him looked like he was about to blow his lid.

"Precautionary measure nothing more, the lieutenant here tried to attack one of the search and rescue teams when they located him. Apparently he thought that they were part of the Atlantic Federation but even if this was the case, military protocol dictated that we had to keep him restrained until you picked him up" Hauser explained before gesturing to one of the security officers to remove the handcuffs that Athrun had on (In case anyone is confused here, Athrun had thought that Nathan was still working with the Earth Forces when he met him and responded as any soldier would when confronted by the enemy).

Athrun massaged his wrists a little before walking over to his comrades. The restraints that they had on him had been continuously rubbing against his skin. As Athrun silently made his way over to the ship that would take him back to the rest of the ZAFT forces he looked over at the obviously pissed Yzak but kept quiet for the moment, no need to make a scene in front of both the ZAFT and Orb militaries however he was going to have one hell of a talk with both the silver haired pilot and commander Le Creuset once he finally got back to ZAFT territory.

To be continued.


	29. New Opportunities

Armored Seed

Chapter 29

New Opportunities

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed or Armored Core, I only own my OC's. Do I seriously need to keep doing this?

**A/N:I have a little announcement; I am planning on writing a sequel story, however it will be much more AU than this one, but not too much and will more than likely have a completely different plot, and some characters that were in Destiny may not make an appearance depending on if I need them for the storyline. **

**By the way to all my followers who have continued to read this story, would it be too much to ask for some reviews? I would like your input on how I'm doing and what I can do to make this story better. Also for those of you planning to review my story please make sure that whatever it is you write is longer than just one or two sentences. I appreciate it when people explain why they like my story and how I can improve it.**

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><p>-Orb, Reverend Malchio's Orphanage-<p>

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><p>.<p>

Reverend Malchio sat down by one of the lunch tables in the backyard of the massive orphanage and watched the children as they had fun and played with one another. The excitement and drama of the last few days had started to take their toll on the very tired middle aged priest.

After all taking care of the children of the orphanage was a mostly simple matter (Most of the time at least) and even when it wasn't he had help in the form of Lacus Clyne and some of the other people that worked at there. An unconscious pilot, his girlfriend, a young Raven operator who used to live at the orphanage, the daughter of Orb's Chief Representative and her bodyguard was a bit out of his league to say the least. Malchio hadn't been getting as much sleep as he would have liked but it was a small sacrifice, he supposed and it was well worth it in the end. As Malchio sat there he began to think of some of the occurrences that had happened as of late.

Thirty six hours had passed since Kira had regained consciousness and been reunited with his girlfriend. During the time that he was unconscious most of his wounds had mostly healed, but given that most of them were relatively minor wounds it wasn't that much of a surprise. During that time he had mostly been restricted to the bed of the infirmary, only allowed short breaks to go to the bathroom and such and during that time Flay had been unwilling to leave his side once. Kira had also been taking Tolle's death very hard. He had cried for a couple of hours upon learning his friends fate and recently his grief had started to give way to anger at the one who had killed one of his best friends.

Cagalli and Kisaka meanwhile had taken the borrowed Echo back to the closest Orb military base and informing them that Kira Yamato had been found alive and well. Captain Hauser and everyone else aboard the carrier that had been searching for the boy took a breath of relief, thankful that all of their long hours of searching hadn't been for a just a corpse.

While they were out the two of them had also informed Tolle's parents about their son's fate (and opted to leave out some of the more gruesome aspects of his death of course). To say that they weren't taking it well would be an understatement, Mrs. Koenig had broken down into a near hysterical fit. She had cried for several hours on end while her husband held his wife close to him and tried his best to comfort the crying woman.

This was the kind of wound that would never truly heal, losing a family member or loved one was without a doubt one of the worst things that could happen to someone. The only thing that they could really do was offer their condolences and that probably didn't really mean much to them at that point.

In an attempt to get his mind off such disheartening matters Malchio turned his thoughts to the two other residents in his home. Nathan and Lacus had been almost inseparable since the former had arrived at the orphanage again. Whenever the good reverend saw Nathan he still had that same stoic expression on his face but Malchio could tell from the look in his eyes that the young man was starting to take his first real steps to finding peace.

There was no doubt in Malchio's mind that Lacus played a major role in this, after all she had always enjoyed helping others and this was no exception. Of course a big part of her desire to help him past his grief probably had to do with the fact that she was completely smitten with the young man. Malchio had figured it out pretty quickly just by judging how Lacus had been acting whenever she was near Nathan when he had been at the orphanage last. He smiled at the thought of how cute the two of them would be as a couple.

The good reverend was soon broken out of his thoughts by one of the other children that lived at the orphanage. "Excuse me but, mister Malchio but there's a group of people at the door for you." The reverend got up off the chair he was sitting on and all but sighed, it seemed that his orphanage was becoming quite popular as of late. First Lacus, then Nathan, Kira and Flay and now some new visitors have arrived. Malchio inwardly hoped that they weren't going to be overnight guests, they were starting to run out of room in the orphanage as it was with Kira, Flay, Lacus and Nathan here.

"Thank you child," he said politely before he quickly made his way towards the front entrance of the orphanage. As he made his way to the front door he started to wonder, who had come to his home and for what purpose that were they here for? Most likely it was because of Nathan or one of his friends or perhaps even all of them. Malchio inwardly shook his head, he supposed that he'd find out who his new guests were and why they were here very shortly.

The sight that greeted him when he arrived was astonishing to say the least. Standing by the entrance to the foyer of the orphanage was Orb's Chief Representative Uzumi Nara Attha himself, standing next to the politician was another man who was in a business suit and was carrying a small briefcase in his right hand.

The individual's hair was neatly combed and had a nicely trimmed goatee with not a single strand of hair out of place. It took a moment but Malchio recognized him. It was William Barnett, one of the board of directors for the Morgenroete company. The two of them were also flanked by several men in attire that practically screamed the words 'Orb Secret Service' to anyone that spotted them.

Malchio stood there utterly flabbergasted for a few moments before he recovered his composure and asked "Uh, Chief Representative Attha it's a pleasure to welcome you into my home, but may I ask why you are here?" It didn't even take a moment for Uzumi to respond, apparently he had anticipated that kind of question when he arrived here "We're here to speak with Kira Yamato and Nathan Fletcher. I don't suppose that they're around somewhere nearby?" he asked as he turned his head to see if either of them were close by.

The head of the orphanage looked at Orb's Chief Representative with a serious look. It was doubtful that Uzumi Attha himself was here just for a social visit. However it didn't feel like they were here for reasons that would prove to be harmful to Kira or Nathan or else there.

If they were here for malevolent reasons, then Malchio suspected that there would have been a team of spec-ops kicking down the door. Instead the Chief Representative had brought only himself along with a small contingent of bodyguards, and a well known member of Morgenroete's board of directors.

The good reverend then turned his mind back to the matter at hand and thought for a moment or two before responding to the man's question. There was only one place that really came to mind that Nathan and Kira would both be at the moment. "I believe so, would you all be so kind as to follow me please?" he requested, gesturing for the group of visitors to come with him.

The infirmary was only a short walk away from the front door and as they made their way through the orphanage Malchio noticed that Uzumi and some of his entourage had been looking at parts of the orphanage and it was easy to tell that they were surprised that it was in such good condition. After all the funding to maintain such a place would've had to be enormous to say the least. And that wasn't even including the cost of having the children that lived here looked after until a family would come and adopt them. It was likely that they had some kind of serious funding from somewhere, a charitable foundation was the most probable source but in the end it wasn't' really any of their business.

A few moments later the group had reached the orphanage's infirmary where Kira was still most likely at and by extension Nathan. Nathan along with Lacus had spent a fair amount of time there checking to see how Kira was recovering once every few hours. If they weren't there then the young man was more than likely somewhere else in the orphanage and it would take a little bit longer to find him.

Malchio opened the door and saw, much to his relief, Kira along with Nathan and the two girls were in the infirmary felt somewhat relieved. At least this way he wouldn't have to go hunting throughout the orphanage just to locate them. The first thing that Malchio noticed was that Kira was off the infirmary bed and was no longer dressed in a hospital gown and was instead wearing a t-shirt and jeans. It seemed as though he was getting ready to take the tour of the orphanage very shortly.

Helping Kira up out of the bed was a red haired girl that Uzumi Attha and his entourage immediately recognized as Flay Allster, the daughter of one of the more prominent supporters of the Blue Cosmos terrorist group. It seemed as though the apple had fallen very, very, _very_ far from the tree in terms of personality if the loving gaze she had been giving Kira Yamato was anything to go by.

Nathan was also helping Kira up off of the bed and standing next to him was another daughter from another politically influential family except one that was on the other side of the war. Lacus Clyne. It was quite the paradox if he did say so himself. The two daughters of very influential and powerful politicians that were on opposite sides of the war were interacting rather cordially with one another.

Once Malchio and the new guests entered the infirmary everyone (except for Nathan obviously) looked completely shocked, for lack of better term. Not once had any of them expected to see the Chief Representative of Orb nor one of the better known individuals that were on Morgenroete's board of directors. Eventually the teens regained their composure and introduced themselves. After introductions were completed, Nathan asked the question that was on everyone's mind "Mister Attha I feel that I speak for everyone here when I ask: Just what exactly are you here for?"

Attha let out a breath he didn't know that he had been holding in, "I'm here for you and mister Yamato," he said simply deciding that it would be best to take the blunt approach with the two boys rather than dance around the issue.

"The Seraph and the Freedom are without test pilots at the moment, Nathan since you're a Raven, you can be paid a hefty fee for your services and ensign Yamato, you piloted the Strike until just recently, and before you make the argument of serving in the Earth Forces military, you'll only be doing this for Morgenroete which is a civilian company that has contracts to the Orb government, however if you're still worried about being accused of treason, then I promise that you're involvement will be off the record" he explained.

For the second time in just a few moments Kira and his friends were shocked into silence. For a few seconds no one in the room could really utter so much as a word. Flay looked like she was about to protest, after all her boyfriend had just recovered from his injuries and he was still hurting emotionally after watching Tolle die at the hands of his childhood friend. However before she could manage out a single sentence Kira spoke up "I-I don't know about Nathan but I'm going to need some time to think about all of this," he said hesitantly.

Uzumi nodded, Kira had been through quite the ordeal if the situation reports that had been given to him were accurate. William Barnett meanwhile looked very disappointed in Kira's answer. He had been hoping to use the boy to help gather combat data on the Freedom but it was unlikely that the boy would do such a thing at the moment.

Were this any other circumstance Barnett would have pushed the issue but he was a businessman, not an idiot. He knew that if he was to try and do something like try and buy his way into getting the young man into piloting the Freedom then Kira would most likely adamantly refuse and would never accept the offer of such a thing again. All Barnett had to really do was be a little patient, the boy would come around soon enough and if he didn't, well there were plenty of other potential candidates within Orb's military anyways.

Barnett reached into one of his suit's various pockets and pulled out a small business card that had his phone number on it. "Well when you are ready to give us your answer mister Yamato please don't hesitate to call this number" he said handing the card to the young man even as Flay Allster gave the man a menacing glare that told him that he'd better not try and manipulate Kira into joining their little science experiment.

The Chief Representative of Orb then turned to look at Nathan "What about you Mr. Fletcher?" he asked. Nathan stroked his chin for a moment or two, he didn't really see why not. He was still a Raven operator even though he had basically left the Skulls, only now he was an independent contractor, but he was one without an Armored Core, which would effectively end his career as one.

This opportunity would allow Nathan to get back into the seat of a cockpit, and with some luck it wouldn't be too long before he could afford his own AC if the payments were just right. Plus given the distance between Orb's Naval base on the Marshall Islands Nathan could still stay and help out at the orphanage with Lacus and the others. And not that he'd admit aloud (not yet anyway) but staying in the company of Lacus Clyne was a very appealing thought to say the least. Nathan knew that there was something blooming between the two of them but he was still reluctant to truly acknowledge it.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment Nathan gave Uzumi Attha his answer "Alright, I'll do it," he said simply. Barnett looked completely elated at the prospect of having the Red Eyed Devil himself as one of their new test pilots, even if it was only a temporary position for the young mercenary.

But the more that Barnett thought about it, the son of the current president of the company, Yuna Roma Seiran would probably put up a fit in regards to the new test pilot for the Seraph. This was mainly in part on how much he loathed the Red Eyed Devil for killing several high ranking officers of the Earth Forces whom he considered to be 'heroes' but he'd get over it eventually if he knew what was good for him.

Like many in the Morgenroete's board of directors Barnett felt that the little shit had no real place among them. Yuna was little more than a spoiled brat in just about everyone's eyes. The royal pain in the ass had done nothing to get his position in the company due to daddy being the president, while Garnett and the other members of the board had to earn their positions the hard way.

To make matters even worse his father, Unato Seiran was also a high ranking political figure in the Orb government. Which meant that when Yuna became bored with trying (and failing miserably) to help run his father's company he would probably take the political path as his father had been doing. For Garnett and the rest of the board, that day would not come soon enough.

Garnett was broken out of his thoughts when Nathan spoke up again "When do I leave?" he asked "Immediately, you'll be test piloting for about six to eight hours a day except for the weekends" he explained. Nathan turned his head to look back at Lacus and the others for a moment before he turned back to look at Uzumi and the others and said "Can I just have a minute or two alone with my friends before we leave?" he requested.

Uzumi Attha nodded before he and his entourage exited the room.

The first person to say anything was Kira "Nathan why are you-" he started but Nathan cut him off "I'm doing this because I still to get back to my work as a Raven, besides I need to pay my rent here by doing something." Lacus then blinked, she honestly didn't really think that he needed some kind of job, and she certainly didn't think that Malchio was charging him rent to stay in one of the orphanage's guestrooms.

However Flay was the one who put it into words "Wait, Malchio's charging you for room and board?" she asked even as one of her brows raised upwards. From what little Flay had seen of the priest, it didn't really appear that he'd charge anyone any kind of rent for staying at the orphanage temporarily. Heck a while ago he had said that

Nathan looked over at the red haired young woman with the same stoic expression on his face, but if one was to take a closer look at his eyes they would have seen an almost humorous gleam to them "Well, to be fair he's not. All of my 'payments' are all disguised as anonymous donations to his orphanage."

Everyone just looked at Nathan with unreadable expressions save for Lacus who was giving him a heartfelt smile as she clasped her hands together in front of her, clearly happy with this new development. Shortly after meeting him Lacus became more and more fond of the red eyed Raven operator. At first it was just a curiosity but it eventually turned into something much more serious.

If she had to guess what this sensation that she had been feeling almost every second she was around him, she would have to say that it was love. Lacus had fallen for his kind heart and his almost always noble intentions towards those around him. It was also obvious to her that Nathan felt the same way about her as well but was conflicted. On one hand he wanted to pursue a relationship with the young woman but it was obvious that the pain and the guilt surrounding his former lover's death. Even if that pain and guilt was severely misplaced.

Lacus was broken out of her thoughts by Nathan's voice "I'll be back sometime tonight, I'll see you all then," he said simply before walking out the infirmary door. The very instant that Nathan was out the door Flay spoke up "You in love him aren't you," she said sounding like she was stating a fact rather than asking a question. When Lacus' face started to do a very good impression of an overripe tomato, that was all the confirmation that Flay needed, even when the pinkette gave a small "Yes" that was just above a whisper.

Kira looked back and forth between the two girls and upon hearing Lacus' confession he was taken completely off guard. Sure it was more than obvious to him that Lacus and Nathan had become very good friends. However he hadn't seen anything that would point to them even trying to get into a romantic relationship. Of course he hadn't really had much interaction with the two of them together. And given how Nathan liked his privacy in addition the fact that he had been all but tied to the infirmary bed for the past few days Kira had pretty much been out of the loop when it came to the relationships of others.

Kira turned his attention to Flay who had just given out a squeal of delight and her face had taken on an almost disturbingly giddy look at Lacus who was suddenly very nervous. Then Kira remembered that one defining trait of his girlfriend, she absolutely _loved_ juicy gossip and this was quite possibly the best piece of gossip she had gotten since before Heliopolis had been destroyed. The young Coordinator sighed as Flay started to try and get every detail she could from Lacus about what she had been doing to try and get Nathan's attention.

.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT Command Sub, Athrun's Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

It had been over a day and a half since Athrun had been released from Orb custody and even though he wanted to confront Yzak about his actions in shooting down a civilian ship, he had managed to hold back at the time. This was mainly due to the fact that he first needed to send a status report to commander Le Creuset and then try and take a much needed rest. After all being trapped on an island alone for the second time with a hostile enemy force that may have been lurking nearby normally kept one from sleeping very well.

However when Athrun put his back against the bunk he quickly found it difficult to fall asleep, his mind was on more important things that had happened as of late. First and foremost were the deaths of Nichol and Kira. Although he was still furious with how Kira had joined up with the bastards that had started this whole war, but he now understood his motivations for doing so just a little bit better.

Once Athrun had found out the reasoning behind Kira's actions Athrun started to feel somewhat conflicted about his friend's apparent betrayal. Sure Kira had been fighting against his own people but he had some pretty damn good reasons for it Athrun was loathe to admit. Eventually he managed to put those thoughts and small feelings of guilt aside for the moment and managed to fall into a dreamless sleep.

After he had awakened he got dressed in his military fatigues and was about to head for the briefing room to speak with his temporary subordinates. In the time that he had been gone ZAFT had no doubt been searching for him. This meant that nobody had been attempting to destroy the Legged Ship. Hell the ship was probably already inside Atlantic Federation territory by now. Besides even if it wasn't and they decided to try and pursue the ship it was unlikely that they would even be able to catch up to it before it managed to reach the safety of the Atlantic Federation.

Athrun hated to admit it but they had pretty much failed in their mission to take out that damned ship, and he had yet to get a response from commander Le Creuset on what their next move was to be. However knowing Le Creuset he would probably send him new orders sometime within twenty four hours. Athrun only hoped that his commander would prove to be understanding as to why they would no longer be able to continue pursuit of the Legged Ship.

The young ZAFT pilot was about to head out to go and meet with his subordinates when the intercom in his quarters activated and the voice of the ship's communication's officer came through the machine. "Uh, acting Commander Athrun, commander Le Creuset is on the line and wishes to speak with you" he said.

Well it looked like Athrun would be chatting with his commander sooner than he had originally thought. Athrun pushed the 'talk' button on the intercom "I'll take it in my quarters thanks," he released the button and walked over to a computer terminal that was built into a nearby desk. Athrun had a seat and took in and released a deep breath before turning on the terminal.

The once blank screen changed to show the face of Athrun's masked commanding officer. Without any hesitation Athrun gave a hasty yet sharp salute before Le Creuset told him to be at ease.

Athrun waited a few moments before Le Creuset cleared his throat "Athrun I've read through your report several times and I have to say that in spite of your failure to destroy the Legged Ship you may have bought us an equally important victory, perhaps even more so," he said much to Athrun's astonishment and confusion "I…but commander we failed to destroy the target…and we lost one of the Ravens that were paid to help us. Nichol was killed and Dearka has been captured not to mention-" before Athrun could go any further Le Creuset cut the young man off with a wave of his hand.

"I understand that, but this is war, casualties are inevitable no matter what action may end up choosing. What's important is that the Strike completely destroyed which will keep the Earth Forces from creating a mass produced variant of it. This will help buy us some time to deal a decisive blow to their forces.

As for Nichol I am truly sorry for his death but we must continue to press forwards or his sacrifice will have been meaningless. Also according to our intelligence reports the Legged Ship is headed for JOSH-A which means that once we have commenced operation Spitbreak, every attempt to rescue Dearka from the Earth Forces will be made." he assured making Athrun feel slightly better about the situation that he had found himself in.

"Thank you sir" he responded with a slight hint of relief evident in his voice "Are we to assist you in the operation?" he asked. Le Creuset shook his head in response "No, you and the rest of your team along with the Ravens will be going to Carpentaria base to prepare for a new mission that will take place after operation Spitbreak has concluded. And before you ask me what this operation will be about I will tell you that I know just as much as you do at the moment" the commander explained.

Athrun gave the masked man another respectful salute "Yes sir, we'll depart for Carpentaria immediately," he said before Le Creuset nodded and the communications link with ZAFT's most prominent military commander ceased. Athrun turned towards the intercom and informed the communications officer that they were to set a course for Carpentaria before he told them to inform the rest of his team that they were needed in the briefing room of the ship.

As Athrun exited his temporary quarters he wondered for a fleeting moment on how well the Ravens and Yzak would take this change of plans. The Ravens would probably be somewhat irritated but they would welcome the opportunity to get more business with ZAFT. Yzak however would probably demand that they continue to chase after the Legged Ship in order to get payback for what happened to Nichol and Dearka. Athrun sighed, he supposed he'd have to cross that bridge when he came to it.

.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT Command Sub, Briefing Room-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

Commander Lockhart and the remaining members of the Hydras were more than just a little anxious. For the past couple of days Lockhart and his men had been working their asses off trying to locate Athrun. Now that their 'glorious leader' had been returned to them, Yzak and both of Lockhart's subordinates were on edge.

Yzak had made it blatantly obvious just by his facial expressions that he wanted to continue to pursue the Legged Ship. However he had thus far kept any and all of his opinions to himself. Lockhart hated to admit it but he shared the boy's feelings to an extent. He and the other Hydras had been hired by commander Le Creuset to help him eliminate the Legged Ship and Lockhart never left jobs half finished.

It would give them a bad reputation not to mention they wouldn't' get paid for this clearly botched up job. Originally instead of looking for the little bitch that was their current commanding officer Lockhart had thought of proposing the idea that while the Legged Ship's forces were occupied with their own search and rescue operations, they could launch an attack.

But ultimately he had decided that if they were to pursue that course of action then it would more than likely result in their deaths. Their armored cores and the Duel that Yzak had been piloting needed to be repaired and rearmed before they could go out into the field again. If they were to go out at their current state, they probably wouldn't have lasted very long up against the Legged Ship and its escort.

Even if their machines were fully repaired they were still woefully outnumbered and even without the Strike it would be nothing short of suicide to go up against the Legged Ship at this point. If Lockhart had been a more spiritual man, he'd have been on his knees praying to whatever deity that would listen and would be begging them to _not_ make them continue to pursue that damned ship. But Lockhart wasn't a spiritual man at all. He didn't believe in make-believe, he believed in facts.

And the fact of the matter was that ship may as well have been a god damned unstoppable force from what he had seen. Whoever was in charge of that monster was either one of the greatest military geniuses on the planet or the luckiest son of a bitch in history, probably both. And the only person that he had ever fought against that was like that was probably the Raven Andreas Frost, who was the pilot of the armored core known as White Glint.

The machine that Andreas piloted was called White Glint because the white colored machine moved at such a speed that all the human eye could see was a brief white flash before the machine struck its prey. Andreas was also one of the main reasons that the Hydras were in such dire straights. He along with help from the Black Skulls had destroyed he Orbital which carried almost every single member of the Hydras and Lockhart himself had nearly fallen to Andreas' skill as an armored core pilot.

Lockhart clenched his fists as he struggled to retain his calm outward appearance as he remembered his humiliating defeat at the hands of White Glint. He had no idea why the bastard had decided to let him live but Lockhart would make sure that he regretted that mistake right before Lockhart killed the son of a bitch.

The leader of the Hydras was broken out of his vengeful thoughts when he heard the door leading into the briefing room slide open. Lockhart turned and saw acting-commander Athrun Zala step into the briefing room with a composed yet serious look about him.

The very instant that he walked in everyone gave him their undivided attention. Perhaps now they would be able to get idea on what they were supposed to be doing now. Once Athrun was fully inside the briefing room he took in a deep breath, as if he was trying to gauge what their reactions would be. He seemed a little bit unsure about something, whether it was himself or something else, his feelings didn't really matter at the moment.

"We've just been ordered by commander Le Creuset to return to Carpentaria base to resupply and await further orders while operation Spitbreak commences." Athrun explained much to Lockhart and the remaining members of the Hydras relief. They were in no condition to face the Legged Ship or its escorts again but clearly Yzak didn't really see the logic in the plan "WHAT!?" he all but screamed furiously.

'_Great here we go again.'_ thought Lockhart who had started to get sick of that little bitch's complaining ever since he met the bastard. In fact Lockhart frustration was starting to get to the point that he was willing to give Faulkner the order to tear out the little brat's tongue.

Yzak either completely oblivious or ignoring the looks that the Hydras were giving him continued on his tirade "Nichol's dead and Dearka's been captured and you just expect us to run away like a bunch of-" he started before Athrun glared daggers at the overeager soldier, he didn't need to deal with Yzak's attitude right now "Commander Le Creuset gave us a direct order to return to Carpentaria.

And in case you haven't noticed Yzak, we're in no shape to mount an attack with just four units against a heavily armed and defended ship that has more than likely entered Atlantic Federation territory by now. It would be a complete suicide mission to try and attack the Legged Ship at this point. Are we clear?" Athrun said with a very commanding voice.

Yzak grumbled something incoherent which didn't satisfy Athrun "I said: _Are, we, clear_?" Athrun repeated even more serious than he had been just a few seconds prior. "Crystal, sir," Yzak all but spat begrudgingly. Athrun nodded, seemingly satisfied with Yzak's response and looked at the rest of the soldiers that were still under his command "Any other questions?" he asked.

In response Lockhart nonchalantly raised his hand before asking "Are my men and I still getting paid for this or, what?" the commander of the Hydras asked. "As far as I know you're still getting your pay but you're still under our employ until commander Le Creuset says otherwise." Athrun explained.

Lockhart then stroked his chin and made a note to call up the masked man later to renegotiate their current contract with ZAFT as soon as he had the chance. But for the moment Lockhart and the remaining members of his team had some free time.

Given how well Lockhart knew his team he deduced that Faulkner was probably going to go and spend most of the journey to the Carpentaria base in his armored core's simulator, Katrina meanwhile would probably go out and seduce one or two crewmembers of the sub just for the fun of it.

The leader of the Hydras would probably train in the simulator and then get some well deserved rest. After all, he knew that something very interesting would happen over the course of the next couple of days. Lockhart had to be prepared for it.

* * *

><p>To be continued<p>

A/N: for those of you who are no doubt wondering, White Glint is not an original armored core, it's one of the AC's that's in Armored Core For Answer. The name of the Raven who pilot's it is never given but since he needs a name I decided to give him the name Andreas Frost.


	30. Two Intertwining Paths

Armored Seed

Chapter 30

Two Intertwining Paths

A/N: once again I feel the need to ask you give me reviews telling me why you like the story rather than that you just like it. I like constructive criticism.

* * *

><p>-Marshal Islands, Morgenroete Facility-<p>

* * *

><p>For the past hour, hour and a half Nathan had been sitting in a limousine with Orb's Chief Representative and a very influential board member of the Morgenroete company. From what he had seen and heard from Uzumi he seemed like a decent enough guy. Barnett on the other hand only really seemed to be concerned about how well Nathan would pilot the machine. The board member of the Morgenroete company also seemed to be zoning out, as if he was playing a scenario in his mind over and over.<p>

Perhaps he was working on a way to convince Kira to become another test pilot. Of course Nathan knew that the best thing that he could do right now was _not_ pressure Kira into doing something like that. True the boy had been pressured into being the pilot of the Strike but that was under extreme circumstances. All Kira really wanted in life was to live in peace. Given all that had happened as of late, that probably wasn't going to occur for a very long time.

Maybe people like Nathan and Kira weren't meant to have normal, peaceful lives. Maybe all they were meant to be were soldiers on the battlefield. After all Kira was a naturally gifted mobile-suit pilot which was a complete contrast to his gentle and caring nature. It seemed that war had a way of twisting what people were inside. Pushing those depressing thoughts aside for a while Nathan then wondered about what he would encounter once he and the others arrived at the Morgenroete facility.

The Raven pilot had to admit that he was somewhat curious about what was inside the Morgenroete hangers in the Orb military base. The last time he had visited the Marshal Islands he hadn't really had much of an opportunity to take a look inside the Morgenroete. Instead he had opted to go and visit Malchio's orphanage rather than take the grand tour that Kira and some of the other key officers of the Archangel had been given during their previous visit.

At first Nathan didn't really know what he'd see, given how it was a civilian hanger and he had only been inside a couple of those (the ones at the Raven's Nest hardly counted as civilian). Eventually the limo came to a stop at the guard post that presided over the only entrance into the base.

The base itself was surrounded by a chain-link fence equipped with triple gauge razor wire and a fair number of guard towers that each had a number of machinegun and rocket launching turrets. There were also several guards patrolling the inner perimeter of the compound. Nathan could understand the need for the tight security, after what happened on Heliopolis it was only natural that they'd feel the need to increase the level of security around their military bases.

The guard at the gate asked for their identification to which Uzumi merely showed his face. Upon seeing the Chief Representative of Orb the man sputtered out an apology for taking up his time, but Uzumi just gave the man a reassuring look and said that it was fine. The gate then slid open and the limo drove towards the entrance to the hanger. As the limo drove towards the hanger bay entrance Nathan spoke up.

"Mister Attha will you be joining us?" he inquired curiously. Nathan already knew that Barnett would probably be there to observe whatever test that Nathan had to undertake but he was unsure if the Chief Representative himself would be present for the piloting tests.

Uzumi shook his head "No, I still have things to take care of that take priority over this, I was just here to help recruit you" he explained. Nathan gave the politician a polite nod, he understood that duty took precedence over almost everything when one's country was concerned. A few moments later the limo stopped at the entrance to the hanger bay.

Once the ride had reached a full and complete stop Barnett and Nathan unbuckled their seatbelts and exited the luxury vehicle that had carried them to their destination. After Nathan and Barnett got out of the vehicle, Nathan stretched his limbs, he had been in the limo for quite some time and as such was very uncomfortable despite the fancy leather seats he had been given to sit in.

The pair walked through the main lobby and towards one of the security doors that lead to their destination. A pair of armed security guards in front of the doors blocked their way and looked at the two of them suspiciously even as Barnett showed them his security card. One of the guards pulled out a small scanner and put the card into a slot that was built into the machine.

There was a long pause before a resounding beep came from the machine. The guard that had done the scanning looked over at his comrade and nodded "They have authorization, let 'em in" he said almost dispassionately. Immediately the other guard put in a few commands at the console near his position which caused the door to slowly open, allowing the guests access into the hanger section of the base.

After Nathan entered the hanger he saw that the way it was organized wasn't too dissimilar to how standard military hangers were. It was to be expected of course given how it was practically part of the military base anyways he supposed. Nathan then looked at some of the other prototype mobile suits that were in various places around the hanger. Nathan quickly realized that they were probably the Astray units he had heard about during the long ride from the orphanage to the Morgenroete hanger.

The young Raven also knew for a fact that he wasn't going to be piloting any of them considering how Uzumi and the Morgenroete Board member had stated numerous times that the unit he was going to be piloting was a one of a kind model. As the group continued through the hanger they passed a number of Morgenroete employees going about their business, from working on various mechanical parts to running maintenance on the machine's inner workings. They went through a number of areas throughout the hanger before they finally got to their intended destination.

When Nathan saw the new Gundam mobile suit he honestly thought he was dreaming. The Gundam itself was an incredible sight to behold. It looked almost every bit like an angel. Nathan could barely restrain himself from laughing uncontrollably, the whole situation was almost perversely ironic. To think that one of the most feared and respected Ravens in the world, the Red Eyed Devil himself was to pilot a machine that resembled an angel.

Nathan was about to ask why he had been chosen to pilot this particular machine when he heard a series of footsteps coming from directly behind them. Before Nathan could turn to see who was approaching them, someone shouted "What the hell is this?!" from behind the two visitors. Immediately Nathan and Barnett turned around to see a young man who was roughly twenty years of age who had a very pissed off expression on his face. The guy had neck length purple hair that was neatly trimmed and combed and was wearing a business suit.

Nathan also saw an arrogant almost narcissistic gleam in his blue eyes. "Mr. Seiran, it's quite the surprise to see you here normally you don't come visit the hanger. What's brings you down here today?" Barnett asked politely while hoping to god that the spoiled brat wouldn't do anything stupid. Oh who was he kidding almost everything that bastard did was idiotic and shortsighted at best.

"I came here because I couldn't believe what I'd been told earlier, that we were giving the test pilot position to a Raven and not just any Raven but the Red Eyed Devil himself!" Yuna exclaimed, his eyes becoming narrow slits at the young man in question. Nathan recognized the family name almost immediately after Barnett mentioned it. The Seirans were one of the five noble families that governed Orb. They were also very staunch supporters of the Atlantic Federation, and Nathan was starting to suspect that they had a more than just a hand in helping the Earth Forces create mobile suits.

Barnett was about to respond to Yuna's insinuations but Nathan beat him to it "If you have a problem with me Yuna Seiran, I suggest you just come out and say it now." Nathan's voice was calm and even but had a very sharp edge to it. The Morgenroete board member looked back and forth between Nathan and Yuna and somehow knew that this wouldn't end well for the Seiran.

"Well of course I have a problem with you. You brutally murdered several war heroes." Yuna said with a look of burning hatred. Nathan instantly knew who it was that Yuna was talking about and felt his rage start to rise. It took an immeasurable amount of self control but Nathan barely managed to restrain himself from pulling out one of the throwing knives he kept hidden on his person and using it to stab the bastard in front of him to death with it.

The last time that someone referred to the 'people' that nuked Junius Seven as 'heroes' Nathan had broken more than a fair number of his bones and made sure that he would spend several months eating his meals through a straw. "I would suggest that you don't call those _things_, heroes. You might find yourself with a shattered jawbone along with much more irreparable damage done to your body." Nathan advised, his voice getting lower.

Yuna just scoffed at the threat that Nathan had been making "Please I'm not afraid of a mindless thug like yourself after all I'm the-" the politician's son was cut off by Barnett who decided to intervene before Nathan decided to kill the idiot. "Mister Seiran, mister Fletcher has an astounding combat record and the board unanimously agreed that he should be the one to pilot the Seraph. Therefore I recommend that you shut your trap before you find yourself out of a job." he warned.

The threat was a bluff of course, but given Yuna's complete and utter incompetence at everything he attempted, he would probably buy it. If they were to fire the bastard he would probably just run crying home to daddy and demand that they give him his job back and punish those responsible. Knowing Yuna's father he would probably comply with such an outrageous demand, and most of the board knew that they would probably end up being the ones without jobs.

Thankfully the spoiled brat didn't seem to call him on it and instead simply pointed his finger at the two of them "Fine but my father _will_ here about this." he swore before he turned around haughtily and walked off. Once Nathan was sure that the heir to the Seiran family was far enough away he turned to Barnett and said "How much trouble would I get if he happened to suddenly 'disappear' without so much as a trace?" his voice betraying some of his anger.

Barnett sighed "Quite a lot unfortunately, but if it makes you feel any better there wouldn't be too many people around here who would hold it against you." he said unsure if the young man was being serious or not. Nathan looked at the heir of the Seiran family's retreating form with disdain "Just a word of warning, if he makes comments like the ones he made earlier around me, I won't be responsible for what happens to him" he all but snarled.

With that being said Barnett gestured for the young man to follow him towards the upper deck of the hanger. As they made their way there Nathan decided to ask a question that had been eating away at him for a while "So out of all of the pilots you have on hand, why pick a Raven like me? I mean the new OS that Kira made for you allows Naturals to pilot mobile suits"

The Morgenroete official put his hands behind his back after they had reached the top of the staircase and gave him a response "Aside from Kira you are perhaps the most logical choice to be the a Gundam pilot. After all you have experience in piloting armored cores, which are very similar to mobile suits isn't that right?" he asked.

Nathan gave the man a curious look "Armored cores are similar to mobile suits but they are still different, you know as well as I do that most of the operating systems are custom made, and the way that armored cores are piloted may be similar but they each handle differently based on how the pilot has had their machine built." he explained. Barnett looked at him "Still you have shown yourself a more than adaptable pilot given the environments in which you have fought. Therefore I believe that you should be able to take to this new machine quite quickly."

Nathan stroked his chin in thought for a few seconds. He had to admit that Barnett made a pretty good argument but still, he had never piloted a mobile suit before in his life let alone a Gundam. However Nathan was more than willing to accept the challenge of piloting such a craft.

Upon seeing the inside of the Gundam's cockpit he was surprised to see that it looked very similar to an armored core's. There were a few notable exceptions, like the position of some of the controls that involved piloting the machine but other than that it was more or less the same. Nathan climbed into the cockpit and strapped into the pilot's seat.

Earlier during the ride to the Morgenroete compound Barnett had told Nathan that they were going to do a number of combat simulation tests before they decided to do real world tests. Nathan supposed that it was probably for the best. This way he could gauge the machine's capabilities before having to go through a live training exercise. Sure it wasn't the real thing but it would help him get used to piloting the Seraph before getting a hands on experience.

The cockpit had finished sealing shut when the monitors that allowed the pilot to view the outside of the machine flashed on, instantly illuminating the cockpit in a white glow. Shortly after the Morgenroete corporate logo appeared on the screen as a serene sounding female voice came from the speakers and announced what Nathan had heard countless times from other simulation programs. So he simply tuned the synthesized voice out of his thoughts until the monitors changed from a blank screen to a vast desert that was not dissimilar from the one that the Black Skulls used for basic training.

The next twenty minutes felt like several hours considering that Nathan had already gone through a training simulation that was just like this one, although this one felt like it was taking longer and was even more tedious. The controls he didn't recognize were actually very intuitive, for the most part.

Upon finishing the basic training of the machine it was time to use the combat simulator. The monitors in the cockpit changed from a vast, endless desert to an urban sprawl. The computer then went over the mission briefing. Destroy all hostile targets. The enemy force itself as actually a very simple ZAFT mobile suit attack group. Several GINNs a few DINNs along with attack helicopter support.

Once the simulation began Nathan activated the Seraph's Phase Shift Armor and activated the thrusters. When the thrusters activated Nathan was somewhat surprised at how fluidly they moved about through the air. When he was using the Lucifer's thrusters they didn't fly as smoothly as this.

Granted they did get the job done but Nathan almost always felt like the Lucifer was struggling against the wind rather than going with it. The machine continued to ascend upwards a little bit longer even as Nathan spotted several DINNs on the Seraph's radar. The beam rifle had just enough range to take out the DINNs but Seraph's new pilot felt the need to use some more, destructive equipment.

Like the Freedom, the Seraph had a pair of railguns but unlike the Freedom they were much more destructive. The moment that the energy particles finished passing through the central portion of the railgun's barrel, they were supercharged by a series of conducting mechanisms that had been put into place. This allowed the weapon to be just as destructive as the Freedom's shoulder back mounted beam cannons but without adding additional weight to the Seraph. It was quite ingenious to be honest.

The DINNs were clustered pretty close together which was something that no intelligent aerial based unit would do. The reasoning behind it was that if they were spaced out a bit more they had much more room to maneuver in order to avoid anti-air weapons. Most of the DINN's were destroyed in the volley of railgun fire until only three remained. Not wanting to waste energy on so few targets Nathan fired off several rounds from his beam rifle which brought down the remaining enemy forces.

Nathan didn't really even get a chance to catch his breath as the GINNs and attack helicopters began opening fire from the ground. Unlike the DINNs these hostiles weren't bunched up together and using the many buildings as cover, which made it very difficult to get an accurate shot at the GINNs. The helicopters however were a completely different story however, and five out of the twelve of them were easily mowed down from the Seraph's CIWs as it started its descent into the city. During the descent though some of the choppers got off a few lucky shots with their missiles which struck into the Seraph's chest but the PS shield allowed the Gundam to shrug off the damage without too much trouble.

Once the Seraph landed he kept the thrusters on, this would allow him some maneuverability inside the city. The city itself had wide open streets which worked to Nathan's advantage. This way it would be less likely for him to run the risk of crashing into a random building on accident.

The Seraph brought up it's beam rifle and got ready to open fire while it kept its shielded arm out in front to allow him to keep his front covered. Nathan checked the machine's power readouts and much to his surprise, that despite several hits, its power hadn't drained so much as half a percent despite the fact that the PS armor drained the machine's power supply whenever it got hit by weapons fire.

Two GINNs appeared from behind two of the buildings that they had been using for cover and opened fire with their machine guns. Most of the rounds impacted the shield mounted in the left arm but a few managed to hit the torso of the Gundam. Once again the energy drain was negligible.

This made Nathan slightly confused, during combat while on Earth and in space, the Raven had noticed that Strike's energy supply ran out rather quickly which was why Kira preferred not to keep fights from dragging on for too long. But in this case there wasn't much of a drain at all. Nathan made himself a mental note to inquire about the power drainage difference between the Seraph and the Strike to Barnett after the simulation was over.

Nathan targeted the GINN closest to him and fired off three rounds from his beam rifle. The first shot blew off the GINN's gun arm while the second blew the head clean off the shoulders of the machine while the third went straight through the cockpit. As the first GINN fell the remaining helicopters came in and started opening fire with their missiles and machine guns. They were quickly and easily brought down through the use of the Seraph's CIWs and beam rifle.

The seven other GINNs regrouped and began to open fire on the Seraph even as it went behind a building for cover. Four of the GINNs carried their standard rifles while the other three carried swords, the latter of which was heading straight for Nathan's current position. Nathan saw this as a perfect opportunity to try out the beam sabers.

The Seraph holstered the beam rifle and drew its pair of beam sabers from their holsters and activated them both. Using the Seraph's thrusters to evade the GINNs gunfire, the machine closed in on the three charging hostiles and easily parried the first blow from the leading GINN's sword before slicing it in half at the waist. The next one to go down attempted to raise it's sword upwards to try a power attack but Nathan expertly sliced off the arms holding the blade before gutting the machine with it's other beam saber.

The final melee weapon equipped GINN attempted to fall back so that it could gain some space for a counter attack but before it could get so much as a few steps away from the Seraph, the machine's CIWs opened fire on the GINN. Ordinarily CIWs wouldn't have much of an effect on mobile suit armor, but since it was so close it didn't really matter much.

The Seraph's CIWs shredded the head of the GINN apart before vertically bisecting the machine with a blow from a beam saber. Nathan pulled back a little as the GINN exploded before deactivating and holstering the beam sabers and drawing out his beam rifle while the railguns unfolded from resting spots on the shoulders.

Nathan took aim at the other GINNs and squeezed the trigger of the beam rifle which sent a bolt of energy straight through the chest of the nearest GINN causing it to go up in a fiery explosion. The remaining three GINNs were completely obliterated when Nathan fired the Seraph's railguns.

After the last GINN was finally destroyed, the computer screens inside the cockpit of the Seraph turned white before the words "simulation over, please report to the observation unit" appeared on the screen in black lettering. The hatch leading out of the Seraph's cockpit opened up and Nathan unbuckled his safety belt before getting out of the machine. As he made his way out he wondered if he would get the chance to take out the machine for some live training exercises anytime soon.

Computerized simulation battles were all well and good, plus they prevented harm from coming to the user but they were still basically an advanced videogame. Live training exercises were much more effective because of their realism. If you used a simulator too much without going into actual combat every now and then, the one using it sometimes got a sense of invincibility which could end up proving fatal.

Nathan pushed those thoughts from his mind at the moment as he made his way towards the observation area of the hanger where Barnett was most likely waiting for him.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, JOSH-A<p>

* * *

><p>As the Archangel made its way into the port of JOSH-A, the bridge crew of the Archangel were almost completely elated. It seemed to them as though the last few weeks of pure desperation and uncertainty were finally behind them. There were however a handful of individuals on the bridge that were hardly celebrating.<p>

One individual specifically was Murrue Ramius. Although the Archangel's captain did feel a sense of joy at finally reaching the goal that had been set out for them, she felt a pit growing in her stomach. They still didn't know the status of ensigns Yamato and Koenig.

To make things worse lieutenant Fletcher and ensign Allster had stolen Mu's Skygrasper in an attempt to help search for the missing pilots and they hadn't heard so much as a word from either of them since they disappeared. Murrue hoped that they were all right. It was a very difficult decision to continue on without Kira or Tolle but they had no other option, they needed to get to Alaska as quickly as possible.

The Archangel's captain attempted to distract herself by thinking of other things but her mind kept on coming back to Kira and the others who were still out there. Eventually Murrue was broken out of her thoughts by an all too familiar voice "I take it you're still thinking about them?" commander La Flaga asked before the captain nodded, wondering if she was being too obvious "Yeah, you're right. They were under my command and I made the decision to leave them out there.

The commander gave Murrue a comforting smile "You did everything you possibly could at the time, no one can ask any more of someone. Besides Kira and the others have been through some very difficult situations before and they came out alright, so show a little bit of faith. I'm sure that they're just fine." he said even though he had some doubts about their well being himself."Thanks Mu, I needed that" she replied, Mu gave a lighthearted shrug "That's what I'm here for, just let me know if you need anything" he said. Murrue nodded before looking out at the military harbor. She noticed that most of the naval vessels at JOSH-A were almost entirely comprised of Eurasian ships. It was odd in her mind, she could have sworn that there always supposed to be an equal mix of both Eurasian and Atlantic Federation ships at the Alaskan base.

The next thing that Murrue noticed was that there were more ships than the harbor could hold. She even noticed that a few Giga Base class Arms Fort (Giga Bases appear in Armored Core For Answer) were in the water as well. Giga Bases were among the smaller class Arms Forts. They were mainly used for heavy assault or defensive operations, primarily on the coast due to their amphibious nature.

From directly above a Giga Base looked like a giant "H". The Giga Base contained several surface to air and surface to surface missile launchers as well as a variety of anti-armor cannons. The primary weapon of the Giga Base though was the massive artillery cannon mounted in the center, which was more than capable of destroying both mobile suits and armored cores in a mere one or two hits depending on the kind of armor the MS or AC had been equipped with.

The captain was once again broken out of her thoughts by the ship's backup communications officer "Captain, we've just received direct orders from the command staff of JOSH-A, they have a hanger bay prepared for us and they want to see the commanding officers aboard the ship as soon as they're done looking over your report." he said. Captain Ramius knew that this was coming sooner or later and something told her that they probably weren't going to congratulate her on getting their ship back to them in one piece.

While the ship continued towards port a certain guest aboard the Archangel was deep in thought even as an unlit cigar rested in-between his lips. Captain Hackett had a feeling in his gut that this little visit to JOSH-A would end up proving to be something of an important learning experience for the officers and crew of the Archangel. He just hoped that it wouldn't be because of someone's death.

A little over an hour later Murrue, Mu and Natarle were all having a seat in the base's conference room. Sitting directly across from them was captain Sutherland and the other members of the JOSH-A command staff. Captain Hackett and the other members of the Black Skulls had been ordered by captain Sutherland to stay aboard the ship. This was mainly due to the fact that they were guests aboard the ship and not members of the crew. However something told Mu that there was more to it than just that.

Captain Sutherland was a politically driven man with an intense distaste of Coordinators. In other words he was pretty much the same as admiral Garcia and would more than likely try and use Kira as a scapegoat. Something told Mu that this wasn't' going to end well for them.

The commander of JOSH-A spoke in a relatively calm yet very disappointed voice and said "Captain Ramius, we have given your report a thorough examination, we feel the need to ask you if you would make the same decisions you did over again from the events at Heliopolis to this moment, would you?" asked Sutherland with a raised brow.

For a brief moment Murrue wondered what it was he meant by that question but the Archangel's captain decided to give an honest answer "Yes captain Sutherland I would." she declared firmly. Sutherland shook his head in disappointment "Captain Ramius, you allowed a Coordinator, one of our enemies to pilot an advanced prototype mobile suit, if that's not a mistake then I don't know what is"

Murrue was about to come to the boy's defense but commander La Flaga beat her to it "Sir with all do respect, ensign Yamato was not affiliated with ZAFT he was born and raised in Orb" he said. Captain Sutherland scoffed "Didn't he reveal that he spent a number of years at a prep school on Copernicus?" the commander of JOSH-A asked.

"Well yes but-" started Mu "And did he not also state that he became very good friends with Athrun Zala the son of the PLANTs Supreme Defense Chairman during that time?" he asked. Murrue instantly knew where Sutherland was going with this and didn't like it. "Sir if you're suggesting what I think that you're suggesting then I think that-" like Mu, the captain of the Archangel didn't even get a chance to finish her own statement before the captain cut in.

"I think that it's blatantly obvious that ensign Yamato's loyalties were not as strong as you previously believed considering that he allowed his friend to live several times when he could have eliminated a serious threat several times over" Murrue looked stunned. Was this man really suggesting that Kira should have killed his childhood friend?

Granted they both were on opposite sides of a war but the circumstances surrounding the situation were quite extraneous. Besides the psychological damage that Kira would get from killing his own childhood friend would be severe to say the least. Murrue was about to come to the boy's defense once again but Sutherland continued on, highlighting each and every one of Murrue's "Mistakes" since she became captain. None of the other assembled officers said a word, more than likely it was because they shared Sutherland's views as well.

He went into even greater detail where the Black Skulls were concerned and although commander La Flaga and captain Ramius came to their defense each time captain Sutherland reprimanded their performance it still didn't seem to matter. If anything it only served to make Sutherland work even harder to smear their reputation. Eventually Sutherland got to where they had to stop searching for Kira and Tolle, Sutherland had practically waved Kira off as a more than welcome sacrifice to get the Archangel as well as the Strike's battle data to JOSH-A.

Mu clenched his fists in anger, he wanted to march right up to Sutherland and bash his smug face him. Kira was probably one of the only reasons that they had gotten as far as they had. And to so callously write him off as a necessary loss was abhorrent to him.

The only thing that kept him from doing so was the military discipline that had been drilled into his brain when being addressed by higher ranking officers. It was also easy for him and everyone else in the room to notice that the only one that wasn't coming to the defense of Kira or Nathan was Natarle. Her lack of response wasn't due to lack of outrage at these claims, she was being silent because she knew better than to question a superior officer.

After a while Sutherland got to the incident involving Nathan and Flay's unauthorized acquisition of Mu's Skygrasper. He seemed very irritated that due to video evidence, he was unable to twist the facts surrounding the event to Nathan abducting crewman Allster against her will in an attempt to desert. In fact if Mu hazard to guess, he would say that if Nathan had stayed with the ship then Sutherland probably would have had Nathan arrested. The charges would more than likely include the murder of several high ranking officers in the Atlantic Federation along with the entire crew of one of their ships.

As Sutherland had read through his notes, Murrue felt that she was now justified in erasing all record of Lacus Clyne from the computers. Hell she had given Natarle a direct order to not mention that the young woman was aboard the ship, unless asked by a superior officer if Lacus had indeed been aboard the Archangel. Thankfully it was unlikely that anyone would ask if they had Ms. Clyne aboard the Archangel.

Finally Sutherland seemed to have finished his attempts at smearing captain Ramius' record "Now then, there is one last matter I need to address before you are all dismissed." he stated. Inwardly Mu and Murrue groaned. _'What now?'_ they both wondered.

"High command has ordered a series of transfers from the Archangel. The first is Mu La Flaga who will be reassigned to the Ninth Fleet. Second is lieutenant Natarle Badgiruel who will be in command a new warship." Sutherland had also neglected to mention that originally Flay Allster was to be transferred off of the Archangel as well. But since she had gone AWOL along with lieutenant Fletcher, that transfer would obviously _not_ be happening anytime soon. Once ms. Allster was finally contacted however, the transfer as well as any appropriate disciplinary action would be taken.

Captain Sutherland then ordered the officers to see themselves out and return to their ship and for those being transferred to get ready to leave.

* * *

><p>-Marshall Islands, Orb, Morgenroete Facility-<p>

* * *

><p>It was a relatively short walk to the observation room of the Morgenroete Facility for Nathan. He wondered why he needed to report to the observation area of the facility. At first Nathan had figured that he'd be going through even more combat simulations. Apparently he was wrong about that and it seemed that someone wanted to see him before there would be more sim training.<p>

When Nathan reached the observation room, the glass door slid open for him and the Raven stepped inside. There were a number of technicians and officials from Morgenroete inside, talking indistinctly with one another. Given how most of them were either wearing attire that resembled lab coats or engineering jumpsuits, Barnett easily stood out. Once Nathan reached Barnett he was about to ask what the man wanted when he noticed that there was someone standing next to him. It was a man in his late twenties, he had shortly cropped light brown hair and green eyes.

It was someone that Nathan recognized immediately and thought he'd never end up meeting in his life. It was someone that had a more impressive reputation as a pilot than Nathan did. Andreas Frost, AKA White Glint. Nathan barely managed to keep the surprise off of his face "Hello Nathan" said Frost, "I'm going to be your new squadmate"

To be continued.

* * *

><p>AN: I had debated long and hard on whether or not to add the pilot of White Glint into the picture but I decided that it would be a very interesting turn of events.


	31. A Nest of Snakes

Armored Seed

Chapter 31

A Nest of Snakes

A/N: Sorry this took so long but I hope you understand that with college I haven't exactly had much time to write this but I hope that this chapter makes up for it. Also I had to rewrite a lot of the chapter after the first draft as there were more than a few grammatical errors and I didn't really like how some of the scenes played out in the original version.

* * *

><p>-Orb, Marshall Islands, Morgenroete Facility-<p>

* * *

><p>To say that Nathan hadn't been expecting something like this occurring would have to have been an understatement. Not once had Nathan ever thought that he'd ever meet the legendary White Glint off the field of battle. For a few seconds Nathan had a difficult time keeping himself appearing stoic in front of the legendary pilot. Eventually Nathan managed to fully regain his composure and found himself responding "It's a pleasure to meet you in person Mr. Frost, I've heard quite a bit about you."<p>

The well-known and respected ace just smiled and outstretched his hand offering it to the younger pilot. With a small amount of hesitation Nathan shook hands with the other pilot "Likewise mister Fletcher, likewise. I look forward to working with you in the near future." Nathan gave the man a polite nod "As do I Mr. Frost as do I." He knew that it would certainly be very interesting to work alongside the legendary White Glint.

The young Raven was interested as to what it was that brought the pilot of the machine known as White Glint into Orb. As far as Nathan knew, hiring Andreas Frost didn't come cheap and although Nathan knew that Morgenroete rarely spared expenses when it came to creating top of the line products he did know that they wouldn't hire someone like Frost unless there was something else going on as well.

Barnett was about to speak up to tell them about what they would be doing in regards to testing the new mobile suits but before he even had a chance to say a single word someone called out "There you are!" Almost simultaneously the group turned their heads in the direction that the voice had come from and saw a very attractive young woman in her early to mid-twenties who had chin length auburn hair and deep blue eyes.

She was wearing a uniform not too dissimilar to one that an Orb naval officer would wear. All in all she was what many would consider to be a very attractive young woman but not supermodel material "Frost I've been looking everywhere for you, Doctor Arnold wants another test done on White Glint."

If Nathan didn't know any better he'd say that the irate look that the woman had been giving Andreas Frost was actually making the man cringe a little. Andreas' response came quickly "Sorry Fiona, I just came up here to meet to our new business partner face to face." Andreas then gestured towards Nathan hoping that he'd be able to take some of the attention off himself and onto his new coworker "Fiona this is Nathan Fletcher, Nathan this is my communications operator Fiona Jarnefeldt."

"A pleasure Ms. Jarnefeldt," Nathan greeted with a quick nod of his head. Fiona gave the young Raven a kind smile "Please just call me Fiona," she insisted. Nathan gave a quick nod in response "Alright then, Fiona," he said letting the name roll off the tongue. Barnett then chose this moment to enter the conversation as they had quite a bit to do and little time to do it "Mr. Fletcher you will be working alongside Andreas Frost for the foreseeable future in both live combat training as well as several computer simulated programs."

Nathan supposed that was to be expected. After all the next logical step from using a simulated version of an armored core or mobile suit was to use it in live exercises, however that usually took a while, usually a few months at least before it was combat ready. It seemed as though they wanted to get this new mobile suit up and running as soon as possible. Nathan couldn't really blame them though, after what had happened in Heliopolis, he supposed that it would be a good idea to get their new prototypes up and running very quickly given what had happened to the space colony that housed their last group of prototypes.

Not to mention that it was obvious that Orb wasn't going to be able to stay out of the war between the Earth Forces and ZAFT for very much longer. The Earth Forces wanted to gain control over their Mass Driver, which would allow them to send ship's up into space at a much faster rate. ZAFT meanwhile would no doubt want to deny the Earth Forces that kind of an advantage and use the advanced tech that Orb had available for their own use.

So far both sides respected Orb's neutrality but it was starting to look like a very tempting strategic asset to get ahold of. Nathan had no idea which side would be the one to finally violate the neutrality agreement and attack Orb. ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis, while a preemptive strike to make sure that the Earth Forces didn't get their hands on mobile suits was still an attack on civilians, and Nathan despised any attacks on civilians no matter the reason. However unlike the Earth Forces they didn't seem to have attacked until they were absolutely sure that there were prototype mobile suits that were being stored within the Morgenroete facility.

It was much more likely that the Earth Forces would be the ones to strike at Orb first given how ever since the war started they didn't have any qualms about committing atrocities. The only real thing that the Orb government could do at the moment was hope that the factions involved in this war to not ignore Orb's neutrality and decide to take the small country for themselves.

If one or perhaps even both sides decided to try and claim Orb, then the small nation would need to throw everything they had available at them, _everything_ to even stand half a chance fighting either faction. Therefore it made a lot of sense to get whatever prototypes they had up and running as soon as they possibly could. As that thought went through Nathan's mind he looked over to where the rest of the group was standing and asked "So when do we start?"

In response, Barnett gave a small smile and gave a simple one word reply "Immediately."

Over the course of the next few hours Nathan and Frost went over a dozen combat simulations, each one was unique and different. Sometimes they worked together while other times they were to combat one another in order to complete their own objects. Hell sometimes Andreas Frost wasn't even in the combat simulations. Instead they had Nathan going up against computer simulated versions of Arms Forts, armored cores and mobile suits. Each time Nathan scored a win the difficulty would slowly increase, either by adding some additional hostiles or by making the enemy use more powerful weapons against Nathan.

For Nathan the tests that he was undergoing seemed to go on for almost an eternity and after a while exhaustion was starting to set in. Sweat started to collect on his brow and forehead as well as much of his body. Nathan would probably have to peel off the pilot suit when he was finally finished with the combat simulations.

The newest test that Nathan would have to undertake was to combat a pair of Land Crab class Arms Forts along with several GINNs for escorts. Land Crabs had a rectangular shape that used a series of treads that were attached to eight, "legs" for lack of better word on the front and rear of the machine. This allowed the Land Crab to keep itself level even when it was going up or downhill.

Most of a Land Crab type Arms Fort's body was heavily armored save for the machine's partially exposed underbelly. This meant that the forces that were attacking the Arms Fort would have to use heavy weapons on the Arms Fort. Or they would somehow have to get passed all of its outer defenses along with whatever support it had on hand and take out the machine from below.

Even without the Land Crab's support it would be a very difficult task to accomplish. There were more than a fair number of missile turrets and CIWs but the main threat came from the four triple barreled cannons that had been mounted on the Land Crab's roof. Each one fired high velocity explosive rounds, each shot was enough to put a hole through almost any piece of armor.

The Land Crabs' primary armament had been replaced with four six barreled long range energy cannon turrets for this simulation. Each energy cannon turret had the power capacity to blow straight through the PS armor in a single shot and what was worse was that each turret had around eight barrels that all shot out at once.

Thankfully there was both a three second delay before the energy weapons were able to open fire and the barrels of the weapons would glow brightly before firing. This would allow for an experienced pilot to accurately predict each and every shot that came from the energy cannons before they even fired.

The screens changed from blank to that of a massive desert with two Land Crabs in the distance and from what Nathan could tell from the radar there were roughly ten GINNs accompanying the two Arms Forts. Each and every one of the GINNs were all armed with only the standard issue machine gun. This would make dealing with them a hell of a lot easier but they still outnumbered him and given enough time could eventually wear down the Seraph's PS armor.

The Seraph spread out its wing shaped thrusters before it surged forward towards the nearest Land Crab at speeds that were significantly faster than anything the Lucifer had ever been capable of. As the Gundam continued to make its way to the Land Crab, Nathan aimed the machine's beam rifle at a group of four GINNs that were opening fire on the Seraph. With the accuracy that would make a veteran sniper proud, several of the GINNs were quickly and easily gunned down with only a handful of shots.

The young Raven pilot continued to open fire on the GINNs until he a beeping noise informed him that one of the Land Crabs had started charging up its energy cannons. Nathan then began to increase the Seraph's speed and began to move in a zigzag pattern, hoping that it would make it at least a little bit harder for the Land Crab to keep a lock on the Seraph. Less than a moment later the weapon fired. Thankfully the energy rounds travelled at a slightly slower rate than the more common live rounds. Therefore dodging the shots being thrown at him was relatively easy to accomplish.

The Seraph moved at lightning fast speeds that rivaled that of White Glint kept Nathan from behind hit by the energy cannons. As the battle waged on the foldable railguns on the shoulders of the Seraph unfolded and targeted the nearest Land Crab's primary weapons. The railguns on the Seraph were much different than the ones that had been mounted on the Freedom. The power output could be adjusted so that it could either function as a pair of heavy duty sniper rifles that had an almost mile and a half long range or they were able to turn into a pair of high powered energy cannons.

Less than a moment later the targets were locked and Nathan pulled down on the triggers for the weapons, sending a tidal wave of directed energy at the GINNs. Another three GINNs were destroyed by the fire leaving only three left to try and eliminate the Seraph.

Nathan then turned his attention back to the Land Crabs. He flew towards the massive machine with lighting speed. The left hand of the Seraph reached to its waist and drew a beam saber. It was time to test the close combat abilities of the machine against a Land Crab Arms Fort. The beam saber ignited and a green blade made out of pure energy emerged from the hilt.

Once Nathan had entered the blind spot of the Land Crab's guns he thrust the beam saber into the underbelly of the Land Crab for a few moments before he dragged the beam forward along the machine's underside. Sparks and fire emerged from the breached areas of the machine that only increased in intensity with every moment that went by. This indicated that the machine's primary power core had been breached and within just a few seconds it would explode.

Seeing how the machine was close to destruction, Nathan piloted the Seraph away from the Land Crab and thankfully was able to make it out of the blast radius before the Arms Fort blew up. Nathan was given no time to rest however and soon fell under attack by the three remaining GINNs, one of which had drawn its sword.

The GINN closed in and swung the sword at the Seraph, which easily dodged the rather clumsy attack. The swords that had been issued to the GINNS were primarily used as a kind of bludgeon weapon. True the blades were more than sharp enough to cut through the relatively thin hull of a Moebius class mobile armor but it was nearly useless against armored cores and other mobile suits due to the thick armor that many of them were built with. However in the event that a GINN could score several direct hits on the exact same spot then it could breach the armor, but this was incredibly unlikely at best.

The Seraph sped forward and thrust the beam saber right through the GINN's chest before immediately pulling it back out. The Gundam then used its thrusters to pull back right before the GINN started to emit sparks and it exploded. While this was going on the two remaining ZAFT mobile suits were not remaining idle. Instead they began to open fire with their machine guns uselessly at the Seraph.

The bullets did no damage to the PS armor and instead merely bounced off and into the sand below. Nathan raised the Seraph's beam rifle and pulled the trigger on the underslung grenade launcher. The round impacted one of the GINNs that was still firing its rifle uselessly at the Seraph and was engulfed in a fiery explosion.

The shockwave caused by the explosion sent hundreds of pieces of metal outwards and some impacted the GINN that was standing nearby. Jagged pieces of metal stuck out of the left arms, legs and left portion of the chest like porcupine quills. The last remaining GINN was quickly gunned down by two shots from the beam rifle not two seconds later.

With its allies dead the Land Crab turned its weapons on Nathan and he saw the barrels of the cannons start to charge based on the glow that they were all emitting. Acting on pure instinct, Nathan flew the Seraph in a zigzag maneuver to make sure that the enemy cannons had a harder time keeping track of him. The cannons fired but given the speed and maneuvering with which the Seraph was moving none of the cannons' shots managed to connect with the Gundam.

Nathan aimed his beam rifle and railguns at the remaining land crab and fired a barrage from the Gundam's weapons. Given the thick armor that the Land Crabs were equipped with Nathan assumed that it would take more than just a single barrage from the Gundam's weapons to do the trick. However much to Nathan's surprise, the shots from the railguns went straight through the Land Crab's armor and out the other side. As a result of the barrage of directed energy the Land Crab went up in a fiery explosion, and was almost completely vaporized from both explosions.

After the last hostile was confirmed down, the Seraph's screen went black and the words "simulation over" appeared on the screen. Nathan waited for the briefing in regards to the next combat simulation but instead of going into a new briefing, the voice of one of the scientists came over the speakers. They told him that he was done for now and that after a one hour break, he would need to return to the simulator for another two combat simulation tests before he was finished for the day.

Not that Nathan would have said this aloud in the presence of his employers but he was thankful that his work was coming close to being done for the day. Although the Raven was a very effective pilot out in the field and had enough stamina to last a number of consecutive fights, even he had problems with nonstop fighting for hours on end. Thankfully though it hadn't been long enough for Nathan to pass out from sheer exhaustion.

However he was still pretty tired and would probably ask for someone to give him a ride home just to be safe. Nathan then began to climb out of the cockpit of the Seraph and headed straight for the locker rooms where he'd change out of the stuffy pilot suit and back into the more casual clothes that he would normally wear when off duty.

* * *

><p>Barnett was in the observation room along with almost a dozen scientists and high ranking military officers had to say that he was quite pleased with himself. Despite the fact that all the battles that were being fought with the Seraph were simulated, Nathan Fletcher had thus far proved to have been a more than worthy pilot for the Seraph. The corporate man looked over at one of the Generals of Orb's military with a pleased smile on his face. "Well General Matheson I hope that these tests have dispelled all of your doubts," Barnett said in his best charming businessman's voice.<p>

Matheson frowned, just because something worked in a simulator didn't necessarily mean that it would work in real life. "Impressive, truly but computer simulations can only prove so much. What I want is to see the new prototypes in live combat before I can consider recommending adding mass produced models to rest of the commanders of the military," he stated. Barnett resisted the urge to let out a frustrated sigh, general Matheson was a very old fashioned individual who preferred live training exercises to the newer computer simulated ones.

He always stated to military instructors that simulators take away from the real thing and make the user complacent as they know that they aren't really under fire and therefore it isn't really an effective training exercise. With live exercises it was much more difficult to tell what was real and what wasn't.

Barnett was about to respond when one of the General's subordinates ran up to him with an anxious look about him. The moment that the soldier reached General Matheson he gave the man a salute "Sir, Captain Lin wanted you to know that we've just received word from our intelligence officers that the primary target of operation Spit-Break has been changed from the Panama Mass Driver to JOSH-A."

Matheson let out a sigh of relief. If ZAFT had attacked and succeeded in destroying the Panama Mass Driver then it would be likely that the Atlantic Federation and their Eurasian allies would head straight for Orb to take possession of theirs. The only thing that they had to worry about is that when Nathan found out about the attack, (and he would find out) he'd probably "borrow" the Seraph to go and rescue them with or without their permission.

The more Barnett thought about it, the more he realized that Nathan going in for a little rescue mission when JOSH-A, and by extension the Archangel, fell under attack could work to their advantage. If they were to offer Nathan some much needed support, then he would be able to provide more than enough live combat data to convince even General Matheson of the Seraph's value as a weapon of war. Even if the good General didn't go for it at first, he would certainly see the practical value of getting the Archangel back to Orb territory. It was quite the machine and would make a very fine addition to the Orb military.

Hell they may even be able to convince Kira into joining their little rescue operation, that was of course if his psych profile was anything to go by. After all he had shown that his desire to protect his friends and loved ones went beyond his dislike of violence.

"General Matheson, you said you wanted to see some live combat data on the Seraph? Well I have a proposal that I think will have both our interests in mind…"

* * *

><p>-JOSH-A, Access Corridor B-5-<p>

* * *

><p>A few hours ago Mu had received word that he would be a training instructor with the ninth fleet. An ace pilot forced to become a <em>training instructor<em>, anyone with an iota of sense could tell that the Atlantic Federation needed as many people as they could fighting on the frontlines. The ninth fleet had plenty of flight instructors, they didn't need another one. And the Archangel itself was to be used as part of JOSH-A's defenses. Sure the Archangel had been designed as a multirole craft that could function in both the atmosphere and space but it still fought a lot better in space rather than in the atmosphere.

As for the Black Skulls, they had been informed that the Earth Forces didn't have any transport available that could take them back to Orb or the Raven's nest and as such would be forced to remain at JOSH-A for the time being.

The whole situation was just a little too odd for the ace pilot, and thus he decided to conduct an investigation of his own before he was to be transferred to the ninth. It had taken a while but Mu had managed to "borrow" a guard's uniform from one of the locker rooms and was currently heading towards the primary security station where he'd be able to get a decent look at what the hell was going on in this base.

Ever since they had arrived Mu had noticed an almost complete lack of Atlantic Federation military personnel. Instead there were only Eurasian soldiers, and only a skeleton crew of them at that. That was more than enough to cause Mu's suspicions to skyrocket. The Atlantic Federation rarely let foreign soldiers onto their military bases that were in the North American territory, even if they were allies. And they sure as hell never allowed them to completely replace the staff at that particular base. Whenever the Atlantic Federation allowed foreign forces into the base it was only when the base staff itself contained at least two or three times as many men that the visiting group of foreigners had.

This in itself was all Mu felt was needed to commence an investigation of what was happening in JOSH-A. Mu's plan of investigation was relatively straightforward, enter the primary monitoring room and use the security cameras to get some information as to what the hell was going on in the base. If that failed then he would try and sneak into the restricted areas the old fashioned way. Granted he'd probably get into serious trouble if someone caught him doing this but when he thought of Murrue and the others on the Archangel it was well worth the risk.

As Mu approached the security station he put a calm and collected look on his face. Hopefully no one would recognize him but he doubted that the Eurasians would recognize him given that his although is reputation was well known outside of the Atlantic Federation's military, his face however, was not. This had proven to be a very big help as the Eurasians didn't see an ace combat pilot, instead all they saw was just another grunt.

Mu La Flaga entered the security station and saw that there was only a single guard sitting down looking at the various monitors that were linked to the security cameras that were scattered throughout the facility. The guard instantly noticed the door opening and sat up straight as quickly as he could to appear as though he was keeping busy rather than looking like he was bored. When he swiveled around in the chair he let out a small sigh of relief. He must have thought that Mu was a superior officer at first.

The guard then proceeded to ask "Uh, private, my shift isn't up for another hour and a half. What exactly are you doing here?" Mu had expected a small problem like this occurring and so he had a very believable excuse ready to be used "The higher ups just changed the schedule, I'm supposed to take over monitor detail now." The guard looked a little suspicious at Mu "Then how come I haven't heard about this change in schedule?" he asked, Mu gave a shrug "It's probably because it was just put into effect a few minutes ago, don't ask me why they changed it I just work here."

The guard let out an annoyed sigh but he seemed to believe Mu's lie "Why do those assholes keep on changing the schedule around here. It's already bad enough we're shorthanded as it is with over half the base being transferred to Panama but now they go and change the shift schedule without telling the freaking rest of us. Well thanks for informing me of this soldier, I'll be off." The guard then got up off of the chair he was on and made his way out of the security station.

Once the door closed behind the guard, Mu quickly went to work on the monitors. There had to be something here that would prove or disprove some of the suspicions that Mu was having about the goings on in JOSH-A. Mu used the monitor to cycle through the security cameras but all they showed were just some base personnel going about their business.

Eventually though Mu came across something interesting. At first glance he thought it was some kind of a power generator but then he noticed that it was too large to be a generator, and upon closer inspection he saw that it was really a series of large, satellite dish like shaped objects that were aimed upwards.

Mu recognized the machine almost instantly, it was a Cyclops System. A Cyclops was a weapon that the Atlantic Federation had developed for some of their larger, yet still expendable bases as a kind of self-destruct mechanism/area denial weapon with a very large blast radius.

To make things even worse, the destructive power that was caused by the Cyclops System had actually been increased by the Neutron Jammers almost tenfold. The N-Jammers kept the microwaves being generated into a small localized area of about three to five miles at the maximum. This focused the damage being caused into a centralized area and would be able to do untold amounts of damage to whatever was within range of the weapon.

Mu would've liked to believe that the Atlantic Federation brass would be unwilling to pull another stunt like what had happened back in the Grimaldi Front but he knew better than to think something like that. For well over a month the moon had been the site of a number of very fierce battles along a battlefield that had been named the Grimaldi Front. One of the Earth Forces' primary defensive positions on the moon was known as the Endymion Supply Base.

It had come under attack by ZAFT and although the third fleet, which had been charged with defending the base fought bravely they were all but wiped out during the battle. When ZAFT had moved in to secure the base, they, along with almost all of the remaining Earth Forces soldiers, were almost completely wiped out when the supply base went up in a massive explosion.

Mu had been one of the handful of lucky ones to be out of the blast radius when the Cyclops System went off. When he saw the base going up in a massive explosion he had thought that a nuclear weapon had gone off even though ZAFT had already deployed their N-Jammers. It was only shortly after the battle that Mu had discovered that the Earth Forces had utilized a super weapon called a Cyclops System.

After what had occurred Mu and the other survivors of the battle of Endymion were sworn to secrecy. They were to never tell anyone about what had really happened under penalty of death, and the whole slaughter had been subsequently covered up to the population of Earth. The Earth Forces explained that the explosion was caused when the ice melting system underneath the base had overloaded and subsequently caused all of the ammunition in the base to explode instantly. Much to Mu's dismay most of the population of both Earth and the PLANTs had appeared to have believed the lie.

The ace pilot had to go and warn Captain Ramius and the crew of the Archangel as quickly as possible. The only reason that JOSH-A would have a Cyclops System was if they intended on using it for something. Given how this strategically important base was now grossly understaffed and ill defended it was at this time it would be the perfect target for ZAFT.

Not wanting to draw any attention Mu moved at a calm and even pace out of the security station and began to make his way back to the Archangel. They had to get out of JOSH-A _now_!

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p> 


	32. To Be One with the Winds Part 1

Armored Seed

Chapter 32

To Be One with the Winds Part 1

A/N: Before we begin I would like to respond to the anonymous reviewer known as Aidan Kennedy. I thank you for your input and the time you took to ask me these questions. Firstly I did somewhat base the Seraph off of Wing Zero only with several key differences in regards to it. I also named it the Seraph to serve as part of a plot device that will hopefully make more sense to everyone later in the story. As I have said in an earlier chapter, I am going to do Destiny but it will mostly be AU but the plot will be for the most part the same. Destiny will more than likely be released sometime next year but I am unsure as to when so I make no promises.

If anyone has any further questions then please PM me because I will respond to no further questions in the chapters. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. These chapters are primarily used for story purposes and I don't use them as FAQ boards.

And for those of you who are reading this story I ask you to review it and tell me what you liked about this and what I can do to improve on it. I hate it when people send me reviews that are basically: "This is good keep going" without even bothering to tell me why they think it's good.

Last but not least I'm sorry that this took so long to make, I still have a semester of college that I need to get through and as such I won't be able to update as frequently as I'd like.

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><p>-Orb, military transport helicopter enroute to Reverend Malchio's Orphanage-<p>

* * *

><p>Approximately two hundred feet in the air an Orb military helicopter could be seen making its way towards reverend Malchio's orphanage. Inside the metal plated machine was a single occupant other than the pilot. Nathan Fletcher. After Nathan had been informed of the crew aboard the Archangel's current predicament he had all but demanded that he take the Seraph to try and rescue them.<p>

Once Barnett had finished assuring Nathan that they would allow and even assist him in rescuing the Archangel from JOSH-A. Nathan then stated his intention to go back to reverend Malchio's orphanage before he left on the mission. Once they finally arrived at the orphanage, Nathan would see if he could talk Kira into helping them with their little operation. True both Nathan and Andreas were both highly skilled pilots in their own rights, but it would be exceedingly difficult for them to pull it off with only one Gundam and armored core, even if both were extremely powerful models.

This was why they were going to try and convince Kira to go help them in the upcoming battle. Aside from Kira, the only ones who had any real experience in piloting mobile suits that were of the same caliber as a Gundam were Athrun and the other ZAFT pilots that had managed to steal the original prototypes back on Heliopolis. Since having the latter help them was obviously both impossible and completely idiotic, the only one that they could go to for assistance was Kira.

When Nathan had told Barnett that he would like to speak with Kira and ask him if he would be willing to go back out into combat in one of the prototype Gundams, Barnett's face had lit up with barely contained excitement. It was made abundantly the corporate man was pondering the possibilities of finally getting his hands on another test who had first-hand knowledge when it came to piloting a Gundam. Nathan had decided that it would be best to completely ignore the look on the man's face. Instead he requested that one of the military transport helicopters that were on base take him over to the Orphanage so that he would be able to meet with Kira faster than if they were to just use a car.

It was obvious to Nathan that it was probably going to end up taking a quite a bit of convincing to get Kira to go back into a mobile suit and fight more battles. The last thing that the young Coordinator wanted to do was kill more people, even if was only in self-defense and in the defense of those that were aboard Archangel. Hopefully Kira would agree to assist them on the mission but if he didn't, Nathan honestly wouldn't be able to find it in himself to hold it against the young coordinator.

After all Kira had several family members that lived in Orb and it was obvious that he didn't want to be separated from them or Flay anytime soon. Nathan hated to admit it, or even acknowledge it but, he sometimes felt like he envied Kira, after all, Kira had a mother and father who had looked after him since he was born, and his girlfriend was still alive and well. Nathan was then broken out of his thoughts by the pilot of the helicopter who informed him that they would be landing in just a few minutes. A small trickle of anxiety flowed through Nathan for a moment before he ruthlessly suppressed the feeling. Outwardly Nathan had the same stoic mask he always had on but anyone that knew him knew that he was nervous about having that talk with Kira. He was hoping that the young Coordinator would decide to join them on at least one last mission.

Nathan looked out the window at the rapidly approaching green fields below the helicopter. Despite the distance, Nathan could already see Malchio, Kira, Flay and Lacus along with several of the orphaned kids, waiting by the entrance to the orphanage. They must have heard the helicopter and came to see who it was that was landing in their backyard, again. Although Nathan couldn't discern everyone's facial features, he assumed that they must have been surprised considering that this was the second time this week that someone was landing an aircraft onto their property.

As the helicopter landed Nathan could see some of the looks of surprise that Kira and the others were giving but saw that some of the children had come outside to see what was going on themselves. All had looks of excitement and innocent fascination on their faces, they were clearly enjoying seeing something that they had only previously seen in pictures or videos up close. '_Kids,_' thought Nathan '_they always found some kind of wonder and excitement in even the smallest of things that everyone else would probably take for granted.'_

The helicopter's landed with the familiar thump of the landing gear touching the ground. Seconds later the ramp that led outside slowly descended until it finally hit the ground. Nathan got out of his seat and walked down the ramp that led outside. The children had all gathered around those that were much older and looked on in both confusion and excitement, for something exciting to happen in one week was practically unheard of. After all they were in an area that, aside from the nearby beach, was completely covered in fields of green grass and forests.

This was a calm and tranquil place, which meant that for kids that it was very uneventful and therefore, dull. Unlike in the cities where there were a countless number of things happened all at once, several of which children would consider exciting, the only thing that could keep the kids entertained were the adults and each other. This no doubt made it difficult for those that had to supervise the children day after day as some of the children became bored enough that they had to resort to more, mischievous means to keep themselves occupied. But now that more interesting things were happening around them, they focused on such things rather than on annoying some of their caretakers (Not Lacus or Malchio of course, they were simply too nice to them and therefore not made targets).

Kira, Flay, Lacus and Malchio however were the ones that had his full attention. They all had looks of surprise on their faces. They hadn't expected Nathan to get back so soon. After all it was roughly mid-afternoon, and they certainly hadn't thought that he would arrive in such a manner. They had probably expected him to return back to the orphanage within a few more hours at least.

Kira was about to speak up and inquire as to why Nathan was back so early but he was cut off by the red eyed pilot "Kira, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the Archangel safely reached JOSH-A. The bad news is that according to Orb's military intelligence the facility is about to come under attack by a large ZAFT assault force. I don't' think that I have to remind you of what a large group of mobile suits can do to an Atlantic Federation military base that is currently understaffed and only equipped with weapons to deal with sea based naval threats. I've been given permission to use the Seraph to help rescue the Archangel once the battle on JOSH-A commences and deliver it to Orb if possible. If you're willing I would like you to come along as well."

Kira looked shocked, emotions were running rampant within one another and were clashing constantly. His stance on fighting and killing collided with the need he felt to keep his friends and loved ones safe from harm. On one hand, the last thing that Kira wanted to do was to go back into combat again, he hated the fighting, the killing and the dying that happened to both friend and foe every single time he went out into combat. But on the other hand, the last thing that Kira wanted was for more of his friends to get hurt or killed. He didn't want to watch more people he cared about get killed, especially after what had happened to Tolle. Kira felt gripped by indecision for several moments but while he was stuck in his mind deliberating what was going on Flay had almost exploded in outrage.

She had just gotten Kira back, she wasn't going to just watch him run off to get himself killed if she could help it. "WHAT!?" she shrieked in pure rage. The children that were watching the conversation all but ran as quickly as they could away from the redhead and took cover behind some of the nearby tables, lest her wrath be cast down upon them. "I only just got him back I'm not going to just stand here and watch you drag him off so he can almost get himself killed again!" Despite the anger that Flay she had been showing, the ones that knew her that she was really just scared out of her mind. If something would happen to Kira again while he was out on the battlefield, it was very likely that her mental state would probably to pieces given what had happened to her ever since the Heliopolis incident.

Lacus looked like she wanted to intervene but when someone put a hand on her shoulder. The young pop-star turned and saw Malchio giving her a stern look that told her that it would probably be best if she didn't get involved in what was happening.

Despite the redhead's banshee scream, Nathan had still managed to remain both calm and composed, although he silently wished that he had brought some earplugs with him. "First: Kira won't be going up against any of the stolen Gundams in this mission, only the mass produced mobile suits like GINNs, and you know as well as I do he cuts through those like a hot knife through butter. Second: He'll also have myself and Andreas Frost, AKA White Glint running support if necessary. And third: I'm not 'dragging him off' as you say, I'm simply requesting his help, he can decide for himself whether or not he wants to come along with us. If he chooses to join the mission then he would much better support than what happened during our last encounter with the stolen Gundams, and if he decides not to then, no one will think less of him for it."

Nathan could honestly see where the girl was coming from. After all up until recently she had thought that Kira had been killed, and she had just gotten him back. No one could blame her for not wanting her boyfriend to rush back into combat. Flay was about to offer a retort when Kira said in a calm, yet firm tone "I'll do it," the others looked on in a stunned silence for who knew how long. Eventually "I'm not going stand here and let any more of my friends die, I'm go on the mission."

As Kira made his declaration, an inner conflict erupted in Flay's heart. The last thing she wanted was for Kira to go out there and get himself hurt. However at the same time she knew full well that Kira wouldn't be able to live with himself if any of his friends were killed when he could have saved them. If that happened, then Kira wouldn't be himself anymore, he'd be just a shell of what he used to be. Flay didn't want that, she really didn't but she certainly didn't want him to end up hurt or worse, killed. However it was obvious just by glancing at the determined look in Kira's eyes that there was nothing she could do to dissuade him from going out into battle.

Kira noticed the almost troubled expression that Flay had and was about to say something when she all but whispered "Please, just promise me, promise me that you'll come back alive," she begged before embracing him in a tight hug. Kira returned the embrace for a few moments before he broke off the hug "I promise."

The young Coordinator then walked back into the helicopter and as he entered he saw Lacus looking at Nathan with a very concerned expression "Please…be careful out there okay?" she requested. Nathan replied in the same tone that he gave everyone "I'll be fine Lacus, I've handled jobs like this numerous times before now. You don't need to worry about me." That didn't seem to completely remove Lacus' concerns regarding Nathan's wellbeing but it did alleviate it somewhat. Malchio gave the two teens a kind look "May God watch over the both of you on your journeys." Nathan gave a small nod while Kira just said "Thank you reverend Malchio."

After Kira and Nathan finished boarding the helicopter the two waved goodbye to Lacus, Flay and Malchio even as the helicopter's boarding ramp started to rise back up before it locked itself in place. The helicopter then lifted up off the ground and up into the air. It then flew off back towards the Morgenroete hanger where the Freedom and Seraph were waiting for them.

As the helicopter lifted off and headed back to the Morgenroete facility Lacus' expression adopted a melancholic expression. Malchio quickly took notice of this and said "You care a great deal for Nathan, don't you." Both of them knew that it was more of a statement than a question. Lacus just gave a small nod as she brought up her hands towards her chest.

"Yes, I-I really do care about him a lot," she said "I know that he's a good person inside, despite what some people have said about him, I just wish that he'd realize that."

* * *

><p>-PLANTs, Defense Committee Chairman Zala's office-<p>

* * *

><p>Patrick Zala was sitting at his desk in his office and was looking at the digital clock he had placed on his desk, checking the time with anticipation eating away at him. The worst part of every battle was right before the bullets started flying, the anticipation of who would fire the first shot, who would be the one to strike first while wondering if whatever plan had been concocted would work. Even if you knew that the plan would more than likely succeed it was still nerve-racking to just sit there and wait for the battle to start. It was almost as grueling for the generals as it was for their subordinates as Zala himself knew from personal experience.<p>

The attack plan was simple, but brilliant. It was full scale air and amphibious assault on one of the Atlantic Federation's most important military bases, aside from the mass driver at Panama. They were to move in and eliminate any outer defenses, which, according to reconnaissance wasn't all that much. Once they had eliminated all enemy forces stationed outside the base they would then proceed to eliminate the base itself, and with all the misinformation that had been spread lately it was likely that the base itself was understaffed and therefore poorly defended.

In fact number of ZAFT subs had already entered the base's outer most perimeter, thanks to the N-Jammers that had been scattered throughout the planet, completely undetected by the meager defenders of JOSH-A. A vast number of drop pods occupied by GINNs were simply waiting for the mission to begin. And once the mission had begun victory was all but assured given the advantages that ZAFT had on their side.

Once JOSH-A fell the Atlantic Federation's north western flank would all but collapse allowing ZAFT to send in an occupation force to use Alaska as a staging area for an assault on the Atlantic Federation homeland. Of course even if they were to fail at the mission at JOSH-A it wouldn't make much of a difference, every last Natural on that god damned planet would be eliminated after GENESIS was finally up and running. From there all Coordinators, the next step in human evolution would be at the top where they belonged, while those inferior beings that inhabited most of the planet would end up being ruthlessly purged from the gene pool.

After all in order for humanity to advance, the chaff would have to be separated from the wheat. It was simply the way the world worked, the weak and the worthless died so that those that were stronger could survive and prosper. After GENESIS had successfully gotten rid of the chaff of humanity on Earth, Zala could focus more on the population of Naturals that lived on the PLANTs. The Naturals would have to be placed in camps outside of the normal living areas that the Coordinators would be housed of course. They would also need to be prevented from breeding, after all, if they were allowed to reproduce then all the efforts in destroying the Natural scum on Earth would have gone to waste.

Patrick Zala was broken out of his thoughts when the terminal in front of him lit up and turned on. Soon enough the screen showed one of Patrick Zala's most trusted subordinates, Commander Rau Le Creuset. Because of Rau's sheer loyalty and almost unmatched skill at command, Chairman Zala had handpicked the commander to be in charge of the operation and was to use whatever methods that he deemed necessary to make sure that Spitbreak would be as successful as Zala had hoped.

Once the masked commander appeared on the screen he gave the chairman a quick, respectful salute for a brief moment before getting down to business "Chairman Zala everyone is in place and awaiting your orders to commence the attack." Zala nodded, all was as it should be. "Have all forces commence the assault in one hour." Le Creuset gave a quick nod, "Yes sir," and the screen then turned blank, leaving Patrick Zala to his thoughts as he sat there at his desk. The man's lips briefly twitched upwards before they fell back into a straight line. It seemed that today would mark the beginning of the end for the Earth Forces and the beginning of the next step in human evolution.

* * *

><p>-Orb Naval Base, Morgenroete Hanger roughly forty five minutes later-<p>

* * *

><p>The corporate owned hanger was positively bustling with activity. Engineers and service technicians were going over last minute checkups on the machinery for the Freedom and the Seraph before the mission started. Everything had to be done perfectly so that there wouldn't be any problems whatsoever with either of the machines. After all this was the Gundams' big debut and the higher ups in Orb's government were watching everything that was going on with these machines. If so much as one thing went wrong with either Gundam, then everyone would probably find themselves in the unemployment line.<p>

In the observation center of the hanger Barnett watched the Morgenroete employees scurry about like ants from one part of the hanger to another with a small smile on his face. He had been contemplating for quite some time on how to get Kira to sign on as a pilot but he was quite surprised and ecstatic when he had found out that Nathan had already managed to convince Kira to test out the Freedom, even if it was only a temporary placement. Still the combat data that they'd get from the Freedom would be worth the machine's weight in gold when the military officials saw just how effective the new Gundam was on the battlefield.

Kira himself had arrived only twenty minutes ago and had quickly been brought up to speed on the plan to retrieve the Archangel from JOSH-A. The Freedom, Seraph and White Glint would use **V**anguard **O**vered **B**oost (VOB) packs to quickly close in on JOSH-A all the way from Orb.

VOB packs were essentially a set of several long rockets that were hooked up to a fuel tank that allowed the armored core or mobile suit to fly at speeds that would be near impossible for them to reach otherwise. The vanguard overed boost units bore an uncanny resemblance to the same kind of rockets that took space shuttles up into space. The excessively large and bulky VOB packs would be mounted on the back of the machine before they were launched across a runway and towards a target that was normally a couple hundred miles away at least. Unfortunately because of the expenses that it took to create VOBs they were seldom used for combat purposes as VOBs were usually purged from the body of whatever machine it was attached to when they ran out of fuel or they had reached their destination. Instead they were used only when there was no other alternative method available to reach whatever destination they needed to reach in time.

Once the three pilots finally reached JOSH-A, they would assist the Archangel in combat any at all hostiles. As they fought they would do whatever they could to convince the captain and the crew aboard the ship to return with them to Orb. If those in the Archangel decided not to go to Orb and instead chose to stay in Alaska then the Gundams and armored core wouldn't have nearly enough energy to make the journey back to Orb. Thankfully though a contingency plan had been put in place for that kind of event. A few days earlier one of Orb's stealth submarines had entered into JOSH-A territory. This sub was one of the newer models in a sense that it could also carry up to three large mobile suits in a small hanger that had been built into it.

This mission was the biggest and quite possibly the riskiest gamble that Barnett had ever undertaken in his entire life. After all there were more than just a few things that could go wrong with this plan and if something did go wrong then the millions that had been invested in this project would all have been for nothing. But Kira and Nathan had beaten the odds time and time again, and anyone with half a brain cell would be more than willing to wager that they would survive the battle.

Unfortunately, Yuna had somehow managed to catch wind of how they had Kira Yamato as the new pilot of the Freedom. Lord knew that Yuna barely paid much attention to things that didn't involve someone brownnosing him every few seconds so it really made Barnett wonder how in the hell this information had come to the little shit. When the Seiran heir had found Barnett he had predictably thrown a complete and utter fit even after Barnett had stated that Kira had made it exceedingly clear that he would only be piloting the Freedom temporarily.

Thankfully Yuna had yet to encounter Kira or even more fortunately, Nathan while the two of them were getting ready for combat. The last time the two had met it had probably taken every ounce of self-control that Nathan had to keep from murdering the idiotic buffoon right then and there during the previous they had met one another. If Yuna kept making such comments around Nathan then he would probably snap and end up killing the bastard, not that there would be many that would blame him for such an action anyway. As far as Barnett knew, almost everyone that had ever met Yuna ended up disliking the little shit. The few that somehow managed to tolerate his irritating presence either shared his moronic views regarding Coordinators and Naturals or they simply wanted to gain political favor with his father through him.

Back down in the hanger, Kira had already gotten his pilot suit on and was currently inside the Freedom's cockpit. Anxiety filled his body once again as the anticipation of the upcoming battle started to eat away at him once again. Kira did his best to ignore it, but he felt that the sooner that he, Nathan and Andreas launched the sooner they could get this whole damned thing over with. Eventually a rather friendly female voice came over the communications channel that Kira didn't recognize as someone he knew,

"Kira Yamato, my name is Fiona Jarnefeldt, I'm the communications operator for White Glint. Listen I'm going to need you to get onto one of the catapults. After you've launched the VOB will activate and you'll find yourself being pushed back against the seat. It's pretty uncomfortable form what I've been told but you get used to it after a couple of minutes. Now I suggest that you get up to the launcher, the Freedom's systems have been rechecked and the techs tell me that everything is good to go." Slowly the Freedom made its way off of the scaffold and walked at a gingerly pace towards the catapult. Within moments the massive machine was on the mechanism alongside the Seraph and White Glint. Up above the two Gundams and the armored core, scaffolds that carried three unwieldy VOBs were lowered and were quickly attached to the backs.

Just a few moments later the VOBs were firmly attached to the machines. The red light that was in front of the catapult tubes then turned green, signaling were cleared to launch out of the long tubes that were attached to the hanger. Kira activated the VOB and at first had expected a kind of speed that was not dissimilar to the Strike's Aile package. He couldn't have been more wrong. It felt as though he was being thrown back against the seat of the Freedom. On the monitors Kira saw everything around him fly past as the VOB continued to propel the three machines towards their destination. He only hoped that they'd be able to get there in time before it was too late to save anyone left alive aboard the Archangel.

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p> 


	33. To Be One with the Winds part 2

Armored Seed

Chapter 33

To Be One with the Winds part 2

A/N: I know I sound like a broken record here but, but between my other stories, writers block, college courses, and losing most of this chapter due to computer problems, I've been hard pressed to try and update this story. However once the Spring Semester is over I will try my best to get chapters out at a faster rate but as I have said before, I make no promises.

* * *

><p>-Carpentaria Base, Personnel Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Yzak Joule was in his quarters sulking around angrily, and had been for the past several hours. He couldn't believe that commander Le Creuset had ordered them to return to Carpentaria base instead of having them continue to go after the Archangel. He'd wanted to protest against these new orders with the masked commander but the silver haired pilot held his tongue as he had realized a while back that it would be a fool's errand to question the masked commander's orders. Once Le Creuset gave an order it was nearly impossible to dissuade him of it, and besides, even Yzak knew better (most of the time) than to just go and go against orders from the commander.<p>

The hotheaded pilot was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a knock at the door. Against his better judgment as Yzak was known to lash out at people when they interrupted his inner ranting, the hotheaded pilot marched towards the door and opened it. Standing right outside was Athrun who had a serious expression on his face. "Something 'lieutenant'?" Yzak asked in an almost condescending manner.

If Athrun was irritated by Yzak's attitude, then he did a very good job of hiding it. Instead of responding to his teammate's tone, Athrun got right down to what he had been planning on asking.

"Yzak do you remember back during the Archangel's descent to Earth? About how you shot down that military transport?" he asked. Yzak cocked a brow, unsure where Athrun was going with this line of questioning but was getting slightly annoyed on how this was in any way relevant to what they were going to do about the Legged Ship.

"Yeah, I shot down a transport that was carrying a bunch of cowards who were running away from battle. What of it?" Athrun gritted his teeth in anger, but remembered that Yzak probably didn't even know that it was full of refugees. "Yzak that transport wasn't filled with soldiers, it was filled with civilians that had been brought aboard the Legged Ship after the destruction of Heliopolis."

At that moment, Yzak's face drained of all color its color. His face was almost the exact same color as that of his hair. In an instant some of the things that had happened for the past few weeks finally made sense. The way that the Red Eyed Devil had started to gun for him ever since the battle in the African desert, that guy wanted to kill him to avenge the deaths of those refugees that Yzak had mistaken for fleeing soldiers.

For one of the rare times in Yzak's life he was left completely and utterly speechless. For several long seconds, Yzak tried in vain to sputter a response but Athrun cut him off before he could so much as utter anything substantial.

"What the hell were you thinking? Were you even thinking? The instant that anyone outside of the military finds out that you ruthlessly murdered a ship full of refugees, everyone, the Earth Forces, Orb even the PLANTs will want your head on a spike." Athrun continued the tirade for a little while longer, before Yzak was finally given an opportunity to at least speak in his defense.

"Athrun I didn't have a damned clue that there were any civilians on that ship, besides it was a military transport I had assumed that it was carrying either troops or supplies for the Earth Forces. I had no reason to suspect otherwise." Unfortunately Athrun's anger didn't seem to have abated at all, in fact he still looked pretty pissed off.

"Do you honestly think that a war crimes court is going to really give a damn, especially if you're turned over to Orb once this war is finally over and done with? They can, and will have you executed for this they'll…" Athrun trailed off mid-rant, not really sure of what else to say to his subordinate.

Finally he took in and then proceeded to let out a breath "I just really, _really_ hope for your sake that your explanation for what happened works when you're inevitably put before the tribunal." Athrun then walked away, leaving Yzak Joule alone with an emotional maelstrom building inside of him.

Around the corner, a certain Raven commander had been listening in to the whole conversation. Lockhart silently chuckled to himself as he held up a small device that had recorded every single word in the conversation that had just transpired. _'This will probably make for some useful information later,'_ the man thought to himself, his mind starting to fill with possible ideas for how to use the rather, awkward piece of information that he had just managed to get ahold of.

* * *

><p>-Archangel bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>The Archangel sat silently in the underground hanger of JOSH-A, awaiting the word for when it would be needed to join in the coming battle. Almost everyone on board the Archangel was either scared, anxious or both and Captain Murrue Ramius could barely say that she blamed them. Almost twenty minutes ago the outermost sensors stations started to pick up unknown signatures on both radar and sonar.<p>

At first everyone had thought that it was just interference from the N-Jammers, but since all of the sensor stations were reporting the same thing it was quite obvious that this wasn't just some sort of interference. As soon as it was confirmed by the sensor stations that this wasn't a glitch in the system, the entire base went on full scale alert.

Everyone had been ordered to mobilize, including the Archangel, which was being ordered directly to the front. Apparently the commanders at JOSH-A were under the impression that the Archangel was some kind of anti-mobile suit warship. This couldn't be further from the truth. Sure the Archangel had destroyed numerous mobile suits during its journey to JOSH-A, however that was only accomplished with the support of the Gundams and the Black Skulls. And although the Black Skulls were highly skilled pilots, even they weren't invincible and would probably get overrun by the sheer number of attackers that were coming straight for the base.

Shortly after they had received the order to head out, Mu had practically sprinted onto the bridge, a very urgent and almost panicked look on his face as he demanded that he speak with captain Hackett and Murrue immediately. To say that the bridge crew had been shocked to see him after he was supposed to have been transferred elsewhere would have been an understatement. The first reaction that Murrue had in her mind was to ask if he had gone completely insane but the desperate look on the face of the once always easy going ace pilot made her reconsider and instead opted to listen to what he had to say. She soon wished that she hadn't.

Mu then proceeded to give them an explanation on what had really happened to the Endymion supply base and how the soldiers who were stationed there were used as bait to draw in a large ZAFT assault force. Once the ZAFT forces were all in range the Atlantic Federation brass activated what was called a CYCLOPS system that had been secretly installed underneath the base several months earlier.

According to Mu, a CYCLOPS system was essentially a self-destruct device that utilized several large dish shaped microwave emitters that sent large amounts of heat upwards towards the surface. This rapidly caused the water that made up the human body to boil as well as ignite anything that could be used as an explosive propellant. Within a few moments more the intense microwave radiation would be strong enough to cause untold amounts of damage to buildings as well. He went on to explain that the ZAFT N-Jammers ironically helped increase the weapon's destructive power by limiting the microwave radiation to a smaller area, thus helping to focus the emitters to create a much more devastating blast.

After Mu finished giving his account on what had occurred at Endymion as well as the events that occurred shortly thereafter, Murrue had found herself at a loss for words. She knew that the Earth Forces had done some morally reprehensible things ever since the war had started and although Murrue knew full well about them, she didn't join the Earth Forces because she hated Coordinators like so many others. Instead she had joined because she wanted to defend her country, nothing else. However, shortly before, during and after the events taking place in Heliopolis, Murrue Ramius' loyalties towards the Atlantic Federation and its allies had started to become more and more strained.

The outright bigotry towards Coordinators that many Earth Forces soldiers and officers displayed regularly and for no other reason other than the fact that they were simply born the way they were born the way they were. Recently it seemed that loyalty to the people of the Atlantic Federation and loyalty to the higher echelons that ran the Atlantic Federation were starting to become mutually exclusive.

At first the Archangel's captain was skeptical of Mu's claims for obvious reasons. She really wanted to believe that the leaders of the Atlantic Federation wasn't so callous that it would use JOSH-A and the men who were manning it as bait to lure in the enemy and then sacrifice them all to eliminate a large enemy force. However captain Ramius and Hackett both knew that Mu La Flaga had never lied to either of them before, nor was he ever in the habit of fabricating something of this magnitude up.

Hackett then pointed out that the whole plan made sense as the members of the Archangel that hadn't been transferred off of the ship were probably some of the few non anti-Coordinator radicals in the entirety of the Earth Forces military. While this was probably meant as a bad joke, Murrue had to agree that in some respects that Hackett could very well end up being right about that.

Eventually all three of them decided that it would probably be best for the ship and everyone on it to get as far away from the base as possible once the battle had commenced. If any of JOSH-A's personnel asked what they were doing then they would simply tell them that they were intercepting a very large enemy force that was heading to reinforce the attack on the base.

After the two captains spoke with the AWOL pilot they went to inform the crew of this new development. Surprisingly, they took it much better than Murrue had hoped. Apparently word had spread throughout the ship and her crew on how the commanders of JOSH-A had condemned almost all of Kira's actions even the ones that had helped the crew survive time and time again.

In fact, over ninety percent of the crew that hadn't been transferred off the ship, were completely appalled at when they had found out what had been said by their commanding officers. The remaining ten percent however, had been unsurprised by this turn of events as they had already anticipated something like this would probably occur. If any of these revelations proved to be correct then no one in the Archangel's crew would have any qualms in deserting the Atlantic Federation.

During the battle the Archangel would make its way towards the edge of the CYCLOPS system's edge and wait until either the battle was over or the device went off, whichever came first. In the event that any of the commanders at JOSH-A demanded to know where they were going, then Murrue would simply tell them that they were going after a group of hostiles that were on their way to reinforce the main attack force.

If they were told to return to JOSH-A immediately, then they would inform them that they couldn't receive their transmission due to interference from the N-Jammers that were in the area and couldn't make out a word they were saying. All they had to worry about then were ZAFT mobile suits and any support craft that they'd brought with them.

Just a few moments later the hanger doors began to open and the Archangel's communication's officer turned to look at the captain and said "Captain we've been given orders to head straight for the front, immediately." Murrue then instructed the helmsmen to follow the course that had been laid out for them and had all crewmen to report to their battle stations. This was a risky gambit to be sure, countless things could go wrong for everyone on ship if one single cog of this desperate plan was to come loose. But what choice did they have?

* * *

><p>-ZAFT Command Sub, bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Rau Le Creuset was watching the tactical map of the battle that was just about to unfold from the safety of the bridge of his command sub with a small, almost unnoticeable smile on his face. So far everything was going just as he had predicted it would. Of course the Archangel and the Ravens would pose a slight problem but it was unlikely that they would be able to forestall the battle from reaching its inevitable conclusion.<p>

The many symbols that represented the ZAFT mobile suits and support craft lit up the tactical map in a near sea of green as they took up attack formations and prepared to advance. On the other side there was a much smaller number of red symbols representing the Earth Forces' ships, support craft and fighters were already set up to mount a clearly futile defense of the base. Even if they were going by numbers alone, ZAFT clearly outnumbered the Earth Forces five to one in this fight. If one was to add in the mobile suit factor as well, then this assault would be inevitably end up being child's play.

Of course one battle normally didn't immediately decide the fate of a war but it would end up moving the scales into ZAFT's even further. Especially if they were able to use the attack as a prelude to a full invasion of Alaska, which would allow ZAFT to gain a considerable foothold in the Atlantic Federation heartland.

Besides even if the base wasn't destroyed and the attack 'miraculously' stopped due to some leaked military documents to the Atlantic Federation HQ, along with a certain weapon that had obliterated a lunar supply base, it wouldn't matter. In the end the only true victor in this war, would be Rau Le Creuset and no one else.

The masked commander was broken out of his thoughts by one of the command sub's crewmen who told him that all of the forces were assembled and ready to begin the attack on his orders. Rau gave a slight smile for a few moments before turning to the crewman "Commence the attack." The crewman gave Commander Le Creuset a crisp salute before he immediately went to relay the orders to the assault force.

Within just a few moments the green symbols on the tactical map started to move from their original positions and began the attack on the Earth Forces base. _'It won't be long now,"_ Le Creuset thought _'It won't be long.'_

* * *

><p>-Archangel, Hanger Bay-<p>

* * *

><p>The order to report to battle stations had sent Black Squadron immediately went to their armored cores and got ready for combat. When they had been told that JOSH-A was going to come under attack they had gotten all of their weapons and equipment checked and rechecked for the fight that was coming, so there was no real need for them to go over everything again. Within moments the entire compliment of the Black Skulls' armored cores were all in line and waiting for their turn to enter the battle at the launcher once it began.<p>

Drake and Adam were having their usual witty banter over the comm. channels but it was pretty easy for those who knew them that they were actually just as nervous as the rest of the people on board the ship. although this wasn't the first large scale battle that they were taking part in, once they were out in the field they would be up against at least fifty or sixty mobile suits not to mention, support craft as well.

All the Earth Forces had by way of ships was a small fleet of sea based cruisers, frigates, destroyers none of which were made for fighting mobile suits, as well as a trio of aging Giga Base class Armsforts. They didn't even have any Skygraspers transferred to the base yet. Instead they used Spearheads. Spearheads were an outdated aerial combat fighter that were barely fit for combat anymore given how they could be easily destroyed by hostile mobile suits. In fact many believed that they were better used as target practice now given how easily they were shot down by ZAFT nowadays.

To make matters even worse, once the Archangel had left the battle they would end up having no additional support at all for the rest of the battle. And the "chasing after a new group of hostiles" excuse would probably only work for a few minutes, as would the one regarding communications problems due to N-Jammer interference. Once the command staff of JOSH-A ran out of patience they'd either have someone go down to speak with them directly or they would simply turn their guns on them.

If something like that happened then the Archangel's chances of escape would go from slim to none in no time as they couldn't fight a war against two groups of hostile forces attacking them from both sides. However that last possible scenario would be unlikely as the Earth Forces would probably be much too focused on defending the base than they would going after a group of possible deserters. Right now all they needed to really worry about were the ZAFT mobile suits and support craft. Those would probably end up proving to be the greatest threat during the battle.

Eventually all members of Black Squadron were launched outside and were either perched on top of the Archangel acting as turrets, or they were using their thrusters to fly around it. The Archangel itself was at the rear of the fleet. In front were three Giga Base class Armsforts, each of which were armed with one primary high velocity cannon and several anti-air and anti-ship weapons around the hull. The high velocity cannons would prove to be invaluable against targets at long range and given the size and power of each shot, at least a couple of mobile suits would be caught by the cannon's primary weapon.

The anti-air and anti-ship weapons on these particular Giga Bases were designed to only fight back against support craft such as other fighters and bombers, and therefore lacked the power to adequately take out large groups of mobile suits. Despite this obvious shortcoming, concentrated fire from several of the smaller turrets did stand a chance at taking out a mobile suit if they were able to keep hitting it. The Giga Bases were flanked by a small fleet of frigates, cruisers and even a couple of destroyers. For air support there were a number of Spearheads which were small, VTOL capable, atmospheric fighters that had next to useless against mobile suits. They didn't move nearly fast enough to evade most mobile suit weaponry and most of their armaments were

All in all, most of this 'defense fleet' would probably be obliterated in the early stages of fighting. Perhaps even in the opening salvos of combat. This meant that the only way for the Archangel to escape was for them to make a run for it shortly after the fighting started. This would seriously increase their risk of exposing their plans too soon but they had no other choice but to take that chance.

Captain Hackett was leading a delta formation of Black Squadron and was getting somewhat anxious for the battle to begin. Some of the other pilots, mainly Drake and Adam, were talking with one another, cracking bad jokes and such as it was one of the ways that soldiers managed to deal with the anxiety of waiting for the battle to start.

The Raven commander was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a new voice over the communications system, it was the commander of the defense fleet. "This is Vice Admiral Lenz, ZAFT forces have been detected and are headed straight for our position, prepare for hostile contact!" Immediately Hackett ordered his men to spread out and to take up defensive positions around the Archangel. The Giga Bases' primary cannons swiveled in the direction that the enemy force would be coming from and were raised slightly upwards before three enormous 'booms' filled the air.

The rounds from the high velocity cannons detonated a couple of miles away from where they had originated, signaling that they had struck something that was in the air. They had probably struck an enemy mobile suit and given the size of the detonation it was clear that some other mobile suits had been caught up in the blast radius as well. Just a few moments later almost every single missile turret on the ships that had accompanied the Giga Bases turned in the same direction that the high velocity cannons were and let loose a literal rain of mid-range missiles.

Within a matter of moments a series of small explosions dotted the sky meaning that the missiles had either run out of range and simply just immediately detonated as they were designed to do or they hit their marks. Either way it meant that there would be at least a few less hostiles they would have to deal with.

In just a few moments the mobile suits that were off in the distance quickly closed the distance. Most of them were DINNs but there were more than just a few GINNs mounted on Guuls. Immediately the Spearheads went to engage the airborne mobile suits. The fighters didn't last very long though as the maneuverability of the DINNs were far superior to that of the Spearheads and their armor was simply too thick for most of their weapons. Within moments several Spearheads were cut down by mobile suit weapons and they either exploded in midair or their engines and/or wings were damaged to the point where they simply crashed into the ocean.

Captain Hackett quickly moved in to support the Spearhead pilots seeing as if they were to just drop like flies, that flank would immediately collapse. If that were to happen, then the ZAFT mobile suits would be able to quickly surround and destroy most of the fleet, including the Archangel.

The Jaguar used its high maneuverability to quickly close the distance to the ZAFT GINNs. Once he was close enough Hackett either fired several shotgun rounds into the machines' chest plates, completely obliterating it and the pilot inside, or sliced it in half with the Jaguar's energy blade. When the other ZAFT mobile suits opened up with their machineguns the Jaguar activated the arm mounted energy shield which deflected the rounds but since the shield only lasted a few seconds the Jaguar found itself back on the move yet again.

As the battle continued the Jaguar quickly moved in-between targets, blasting each one apart with one of its weapons. Eventually Hackett spotted Cross attempting to fight off a group of DINNs that were firing at the White Knight. It was plain to see that the White Knight had taken some damage from their machineguns and anti-aircraft shotguns but nothing that couldn't be repaired within a few days. At least he White Knight had been able to evade the ones that had been equipped with short range missile pods by using flare launchers and quick maneuvering.

One of the DINNs eventually managed to score a lucky hit on one of the leg thrusters. It wasn't enough to make the White Knight lose its altitude but it did reduce its maneuverability enough for evading enemy fire to be quite difficult. Before any of the DINNs could do any more damage to the White Knight, Hackett flipped a switch and the missile pods atop the Jaguar's shoulders unfolded.

Less than two seconds later, a group of targeting reticles appeared on the DINNs followed by a long beep, indicating that the missiles had locked onto the target. Nigel Hackett pulled the trigger and let loose a full volley of short range missiles. The missiles easily hit their marks, severely damaging some of the DINNs or if the missiles hit a lightly armored area, destroyed them outright.

The damaged DINNs were then quickly gunned down by the White Knight's beam rifle. Cross let out a sigh of relief before he heard Hackett's voice over the communications channel "Just like old times eh, Cross?" he asked jokingly. Black team's leader allowed himself a small smile let loose a slight chuckle even as his armored core fired off its beam rifle again at another DINN, sending it crashing into the ocean "You and I remember the past _much_ differently old man."

In response Hackett let loose a laugh of his own, "I'm not that old Cross, and I still remember what happened in Siberia three years ago." It was then that Cross face faulted, that hadn't exactly been one of Cross' proudest moments. The leader of Black team had been chasing down a hostile target to prevent it from escaping when he had stumbled into an ambush by hostile Ravens. Several pieces of the Cross' earlier armored core had been blown off and he probably would have been killed if Hackett hadn't pulled him out of the fire.

Satisfied that his second in command was safe, Hackett flew back into the thick of the battle, trying to find somewhere that he'd be able to do the most good. He soon found a group of DINNs trying to do some damage to one of the Giga Bases. Li Wan Kai was already trying to fight off the DINNs. In fact it didn't really seem like she needed his help at all considering the damage she was inflicting on the flying mobile suits with her shoulder mounted beam rifle, her beam repeater and pulse weapon.

Hackett decided to see if Li would require any help but from what he was seeing she could pretty much handle things on her own. However the fight would end a little faster if Hackett was to give some assistance to his comrade in arms. Hackett quickly closed the distance with one of the enemy mobile suits and opened fire with his shotgun directly at the machine's head. Given the close proximity to the DINN and the close range power of the shotgun, as well as the light armor that surrounded the DINN, the head of the machine exploded into thousands of pieces.

Although the DINN was now without a head, it was still relatively functional and was still flying, albeit very badly. A couple of quick slashes with the Jaguar's energy blade swiftly ended the relatively small threat the blind mobile suit could have posed.

Another DINN managed to appear behind Hackett and opened fire with its machinegun. The back of the Jaguar was peppered by the oversized bullets, but the armor managed to hold out, barely. Hackett engaged the Jaguar's thrusters and checked the armor readout on one of the many view screens. There was a moderate amount of damage and it was clear that the armor would need some patching up the next time they got the chance but right now wasn't really the time for such things.

Hackett turned the Jaguar to face his new adversary and commenced evasive maneuvers as it began to open fire once again. Hackett managed to evade most of the DINN's machinegun rounds but a few rounds managed to get through and cause some slight damage to the Jaguar's armor. Clearly this pilot was of better caliber than the ones that he had shot down since the battle had begun. The two machines opened fire on one another while using their speed and agility to evade enemy attacks.

As they continued to fight they both tried to look for an opening in the other's defenses and then attack it with everything they had. Eventually though Hackett noticed an increasingly predictable pattern in the enemy pilot's defensive maneuvers. When Hackett opened fire with a ranged weapon the enemy pilot flew in a zigzag styled maneuver making it difficult to achieve a lock-on with any of his weapons.

When he attempted to use the energy blade or a similar close combat technique the pilot would engage in a number of convoluted evasive maneuvers. At first they were difficult to understand but after watching the enemy pilot perform it a few times he recognized the pattern.

Acting on the hope that the enemy pilot would do the same maneuver again, captain Hackett charged towards the DINN, setting his thrusters to maximum as though he was about to try and use his energy blade once again. When he was close enough the DINN's pilot executed another aerial maneuver, the first step of which was to back up and then unleash a suppressing fire with the DINN's machine gun.

It didn't get a chance to do it this time as Hackett immediately raised the Jaguar's shotgun and had acquired a targeting solution for his shoulder mounted missile pods while he had charged at the ZAFT mobile suit. Less than a second later he opened fire with both weapons at the DINN. The shotgun wasn't at the preferred optimum range so the damage it inflicted was relatively minimal, but it did soften up the armor for the missiles that quickly closed in the distance and exploded on contact with the DINN.

Once the explosions had finally cleared the DINN was riddled with holes in various parts of its armor. The right arm that had been holding onto the machinegun had been hit in the elbow joint, completely blowing the weapon off. The torso taken the brunt of the damage and it was amazing that none of the missiles had breached to the machine's reactor, or at least that was what Hackett had thought when he saw the damage that had been inflicted on the DINN.

That changed when sparks appeared, and began running across the machine's armor that was still intact, a clear sign of a breach in the machine's power supply. Only a few short seconds went by before the reactor exploded, destroying the DINN and sending whatever pieces that were left of it plummeting down into the ocean.

The instant that the remains of that troublesome DINN finally hit the water, a series of explosions rocked the nearest Giga Base on its starboard side. The detonations happened in very close proximity to the water so it was relatively safe to assume that there were a number of amphibious mobile suits in the area. More explosions rocked the Giga Base from below the surface of the water and it slowly started to sink into the ocean. There was nothing else anyone could do for the soldiers and sailors aboard the Giga base but hope that they could get out of the ship in time and into the escape vehicles.

It was at this point that it seemed that Murrue decided that staying in the battle for much longer would be pointless as a secure transmission came in over the comm. channels, "All Black Skulls return to the Archangel immediately, I repeat, return to the Archangel immediately, protocol: Red Sea has been engaged, I repeat protocol: Red Sea has been engaged."

The Red Sea protocol was a code phrase that was used by the Black Skulls. It meant to immediately withdraw to a safe zone if the enemy was in too strong number or firepower for it to be possible to defeat them. Red Sea was normally used as a last resort if there was no real way to win a fight without suffering heavy casualties. All forces would rendezvous at a centralized point, in this case it was the Archangel, and commence a fighting withdrawal from the combat zone.

As if to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that the order had been given; the Archangel was already starting to move away from the battle. Under normal circumstances, Captain Hackett would be quite reluctant to just up and leave allies in battle to fend for themselves. However when he remembered the blatant hostility they had shown towards the crew of the Archangel and racism towards Coordinators in the short time that they were there, it wasn't nearly as difficult as he had thought it would be to leave.

* * *

><p>-Archangel Bridge-<p>

* * *

><p>Once the signal for Black squadron to return to the Archangel had been sent, the ship slowly started to move away from the battle. The Archangel had been using its Igelstellung batteries and wombat heavy anti-air missiles to provide a suppressing fire on the enemy mobile suits. However this was only a temporary measure as eventually the ZAFT mobile suits would be able to maneuver around the weapons and attack the ship directly.<p>

Murrue was of course in the captain's seat, watching the battle unfold around her and watched as one by one the members of Black Squadron returned and flew escort for the Archangel. As the Archangel and the armored cores that were protecting it started to leave the field there, a transmission came through from Vice Admiral Lenz on one of the two remaining Giga Bases.

"Archangel what the hell do you think you're doing? Get your ship back here immediately!" he ordered as his face appeared on one of the monitoring screens by the communications unit. Murrue turned to look at the comm. station where Lieutenant Davidson aka Sky Eye was back to work. After the destruction of the Zeus, Sky Eye had primarily been working in maintenance department, helping to fix the ship's wiring when he wasn't working as the backup communications officer. It hadn't been something that Davidson was happy with but orders were orders. Now he was back on his normal duties, albeit in a different ship and he couldn't be more satisfied.

"This is Lieutenant Davidson of the Archangel, we've detected another enemy wave closing in on your location from the south-east, we are moving to intercept." Everyone had hoped that that would buy them at least a couple of minutes but instead it only bought them roughly two or three seconds.

"We are not detecting anything in that area! Now tell Captain Ramius that if she doesn't get the Archangel back here in the next fifteen minutes I will personally have everyone aboard that damned ship tried for desertion!" he yelled.

Sky Eye adopted what he hoped was a genuinely confused expression and tried to made it look like he was trying to adjust the communications equipment a little "I'm sorry sir there seems to be some N-Jammer interference or something, I can't really make out much of what you're saying, we'll uh, just go and intercept those hostiles for you."

It was at that point that Lenz all but exploded in anger that his commands were not being heeded, and demanded that they return to the fleet immediately. It was almost comical at how the previously calm and collected demeanor that the admiral had once displayed was now gone, and in its place was a man whose face was almost completely red from rage. Davidson ignored the Vice Admiral's invective speech and switched to a different comm. channel, completely cutting off the enraged officer.

Davidson then turned his head to face the captain and said "Somehow I get the distinct impression that the man didn't really buy our excuses."

Murrue nodded before she turned her head over to the helmsman "Chief Petty Officer Neumann increase speed, get us out of here," she ordered. Neumann instantly obeyed the order he'd been given and increased the Archangel's speed as it began to make its way out of the battle with the Black Skull AC's providing cover if any of the enemy mobile suits decided to pursue them. Thankfully though it seemed as though most of them were more concerned with what was left of the small fleet that was being decimated defending JOSH-A.

With a lot of luck, it would remain that way.

To be continued.


	34. To Be One with the Winds part 3

Chapter 34

To Be One with the Winds Part 3

A/N: Sorry for the wait everyone, please read and review.

* * *

><p>-Carpentaria base, Personnel Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>Lockhart was currently walking towards the room that Yzak had been given, grinning like a thief who had just committed the heist of the century as he grasped the rather, incriminating evidence that he had hidden right in his pocket. The recording that he had taken of the conversation between Yzak and Athrun was perfect, completely and utterly perfect for his own designs. If they were so smart they wouldn't have had a conversation regarding such <em>sensitive<em> information in the damn hallway where anyone would be able to hear it.

As for the conversation itself, Lockhart had been having a difficult time not bursting into hysterics when Athrun mentioned a military trial for the little bastard. If Athrun wasn't so stupidly naïve he would have realized that there wouldn't be a tribunal when ZAFT's higher ups discovered the results of Yzak's little temper tantrum during the Legged Ship's descent.

Instead they would do everything in their power to cover up the incident as best they could. The only thing that they would do to the white haired brat would probably be little more than a slap on the wrist and maybe stern warning. In the absolute worst case scenario Yzak would probably end up getting a discharge from the military but little else.

After all, if this information was leaked to any major mainstream news sources then all public sympathy the public had for the PLANTs and ZAFT would more than likely go up in smoke. ZAFT was already in hot water after the Heliopolis fiasco but they managed to save face by stating that the colony had already been evacuated during the opening phases of the attack. They also went on record and stated that the Earth Forces were building weapons there which made the colony a legitimate military target although there were still a large number of people who were pissed off at the botched operation.

If this little incident was added on to that, any remaining public sympathy that ZAFT and the PLANTs had would dive down to the point where they would be seen as mass murderers that were no better than the Blue Cosmos. This would cause many of their political leaders to lose most if not all of their credibility after they found out that the son of one of the PLANTs council members was responsible for the tragic deaths of those poor, innocent refugees. Well maybe not all of them but at least those that were associated with or at least supported Yzak's mother.

This was probably the best kind of blackmail material that someone as devious as Lockhart could possibly get his hands on. With this information the leader of the Hydras could get whatever the hell he wanted from ZAFT, or the PLANTs for that matter if played his cards just right.

Hell maybe if he asked really nicely could probably end up getting himself a new space worthy vessel, new armored cores or even several million dollars (I'm unsure as to what the established currency is in Gundam Seed so I'm going to go by US dollars as it's the currency I'm most familiar with) as payment for his, 'discretion' with the new information he had on hand.

Lockhart soon found himself in front of Yzak's room and knocked on the door and couldn't wait to see the reaction on that bawling little bastard's face when he showed him this info.

* * *

><p>-ZAFT command sub, several miles from JOSH-A-<p>

* * *

><p>Commander Rau Le Creuset was looking over the map of the combined ZAFT assault force that had almost completely obliterated the Earth Forces naval fleet. The only remaining vessel was of course the Legged Ship which had fled the field very early on in the fighting. The masked commander had actually anticipated that Mu La Flaga would probably figure out that there was a CYCLOPS system underneath JOSH-A, and attempt to lead the Legged Ship to safety before the battle started.<p>

Rau Le Creuset had long suspected that the higher ups in the Atlantic Federation had placed CYCLOPS systems as well as other equally self-destruct mechanisms underneath their more, "valuable" bases and installations. After all it wouldn't do for the enemy to take control of a base that may or may not be vital without at least taking the enemy down with them as well as the base itself. Besides, given how the defending fleet was comprised of nothing other Eurasian ships all but confirmed that the higher ups in the Atlantic Federation had discovered the truth of the attack and were using it for their own benefit.

Most military commanders would feel anger, surprise or disbelief when their battle plans were uncovered but for the masked commander, everything was going precisely according to his plan. The only real loose end that he needed to tie up was the Legged Ship.

True he didn't really _need_ to eliminate the ship that he had been trailing ever since Heliopolis as it had given him the slip numerous times. Despite this, Commander Le Creuset had a sinking feeling that the ship and those aboard it may end up causing trouble for him in the future if he allowed them to escape. It would be in his own best interests if that ship was eliminated along with everyone that was still alive on board just to be safe.

Rau looked over the tactical map and saw that the main attack wave had already broken through what was left of JOSH-A's defensive lines and were making their way to the base. Hardly any of the mobile suits had been destroyed when the JOSH-A defense fleet was smashed. At this point Rau seriously doubted that they would have much difficulty in taking JOSH-A as it was unlikely that the base's remaining defenses were any more powerful than the three Armsforts they had already eliminated.

The masked commander looked over to the sub's communications officer and said "I need squadrons: five through fifteen of the second attack wave to pursue to the fleeing Legged Ship immediately."

This particular order confused several members the bridge crew somewhat, as the whole purpose of operation Spitbreak was to take the Earth Forces JOSH-A headquarters not to eliminate a single enemy ship. Despite their confusion and misgivings towards the masked commander's strange orders they did just as they were told and relayed the commander's orders to the mobile suit squadrons that they had a change of orders.

* * *

><p>-Archangel, currently several miles past JOSH-A defense line-<p>

* * *

><p>It had taken several long, tense minutes but Archangel had finally managed to reach the edge of what Mu La Flaga believed to be the effective range of the CYCLOPS system. Despite the fact that they were beyond the suspected range of the super weapon, Captain Ramius still ordered that the ship continue onwards at best possible speed. Her reasoning was that just because they could be out of the CYCLOPS system's range, didn't mean that ZAFT wasn't going to send out some of their soldiers to try and ensure that the Archangel didn't escape.<p>

For the first few minutes during the escape, the Archangel had received a number of transmissions from Vice Admiral Lenz, demanding that they return to base immediately. Of course the Archangel either ignored those transmissions completely or Murrue had the communications officer continue to tell them that they couldn't make out a word that they were saying due to interference.

Right before Lenz lost his temper completely, the communication's link was cut off and replaced with nothing but static. Either the Archangel had entered an area with a lot of N-Jammers or the Vice Admiral's ship had been destroyed by ZAFT forces. Given how badly the battle had been going for the Earth Forces right before they left it was probably the latter.

Given how they were still in relatively close proximity to the battle, there was still a general alert for the crew of the Archangel. The last thing they needed was to let down their guard only to find that there was a group of ZAFT mobile suits coming after them. So far though there hadn't been anything on radar but given that didn't mean that there wasn't anyone else out there.

All they could really do right now was keep moving and hope that they would get out of the CYCLOPS system's range and that ZAFT would leave them alone. But given the recent bad luck they'd been getting as of late, they would probably have an entire battalion's worth of mobile suits bearing down on them once the battle for JOSH-A finally ended. Of course that was _if_ they were really outside the blast radius of the self-destruct weapon that could fire at any second now.

This whole scenario put everyone on edge as everyone was at a constant state of readiness for the inevitable attack by ZAFT forces. In fact for some members of Black squadron it was almost a relief when several groups of ZAFT mobile suits were detected on sensors and approaching the Archangel's current position at a rapid pace. At least now they wouldn't have to worry about the 'calm before the storm' as it were anymore.

Instead they just had to go into combat and take out all the hostile forces, which would prove to be easier said than done due to the sheer amount of hostiles that were coming straight for them. As the DINNs and GINNS closed the distance between them and the Archangel they tried to open fire on the ship only to be intercepted by the ship's armored core escorts. Within moments the air was filled with the sounds of battle once again.

Although the Black Skulls were putting up a valiant effort, they were still vastly outnumbered. It was unlikely that they would be able to hold off the attacking ZAFT forces for very long, despite the fact that they were all very experienced pilots, there was a massive number of enemy mobile suits closing in on them. Even if the Skulls were better pilots than their enemies, they would still end up completely overwhelmed by the numbers that kept on pouring in. If they weren't able to either get away or get some much needed assistance very shortly they probably weren't going to last another ten minutes.

The Archangel however was not simply laying idle during the battle; its Igelstellungs, the Valiant linear cannons and anti-aircraft missiles fired at anything that so much as looked like a ZAFT mobile suit. Groups of the hostile mobile suits that had foolishly decided to bunch up were completely obliterated with only one or two shots that were from the linear guns.

"Damn it, I thought we were clear of ZAFT's attack path! Why in the hell are they coming after us?!" demanded Cross, as he blasted away at a nearby GINN with his AC's beam rifle. The directed energy from the weapon passed straight through the chest and out the other side piercing both the cockpit and the machine's reactor vaporizing it almost instantly. Another one of the GINNs tried to strike Cross with a recoilless rifle but Cross managed to avoid a direct hit by the weapon and instead his armored core was only grazed by the impact.

Despite it only being a glancing blow it was still enough to tear off part of the armor but not enough to cause a major breach in any of the vital systems of the armored core. However if the shot had been more precise it could easily have destroyed the White Knight. It seemed as if fortune was truly on Cross' side on this fight.

The White Knight quickly turned to face the attacking GINN and charged at it with its energy blade activated. The machine was cut in half diagonally as the 'wounds' on the enemy mobile suit were clearly visible due to the red hot slash mark that disfigured the mobile suit's chest. Within just a few moments the GINN exploded and the remains were sent tumbling down into the ocean.

Once the GINN was taken care of; Cross piloted the White Knight away from that particular area and moved towards the main battle where Black Squadron was engaging a group of DINNs, GINNs and a couple of CGUEs. They were holding their own and still kicking ass but given what was happening Cross knew that they would need help very soon.

The moment that the White Knight was close enough he fired off a round from his beam weapon at the nearest DINN. Although he'd been aiming directly for the chest area of the machine, the DINN managed to evade the killing blow and was instead struck at the shoulder joint of the right arm. The shot blew the right arm clean off the shoulder and caused its machine gun to fly off with it.

Unfortunately this wasn't enough to truly stop the DINN t as it quickly drew its anti-aircraft shotgun from its hip holster and aimed it directly at Cross before it started to fly right towards him. Cross reacted instinctively and fired three shots from his beam rifle at the approaching hostile. The first two went wide but the third hit its mark on one of the wings, damaging it enough for the DINN to enter a continuous barrel roll.

Despite the damage that the DINN had sustained it was still coming directly at Cross who then activated his side thrusters to easily sidestep the enemy mobile suit. Predictably given the damage that had been done to the mobile suit, the pilot was unable to either eject or continue to engage the enemy and instead crashed into the ocean along with the DINN.

The battle above the ocean continued uninterrupted for what felt like ages even though it was probably only about five or six minutes at the very most. The Archangel, its crew and allies continued to desperately try and hold back the attacking ZAFT mobile suits as best they could but at the rate things were going it probably wouldn't end up being enough. The armored cores of Black Squadron were already starting to take damage and if things didn't turn around soon, they probably weren't going to last another five minutes.

On the bridge of the Archangel the crew were working at a frantic pace, trying to keep their ship from sustaining too much damage while giving Black Squadron as much support as they could possibly give them. However they were currently trying to keep the more heavily armed ZAFT mobile suits from scoring any major hits on the Archangel's hull. It was a task that was becoming even more difficult each second as two Igelstellung turrets had been badly damaged and couldn't be fired safely while the rest were starting to overheat from the continuous shooting.

The Archangel's other weapons such as the Valiant linear guns, aft mounted missile launchers and even the Gottfried high-energy beam cannons were providing some additional support. Unfortunately it wasn't proving to be nearly enough to turn the tide.

As the battle waged on the sensor operator of the Archangel saw three unknown contacts, heading straight for their current position, each one moving fast, _really fast_. He quickly rubbed his eyes as he wasn't sure he wasn't seeing things and still saw that the unknown contacts were still making their way towards the Archangel's current position.

He turned to look over at the captain and said "Captain Ramius, we have three additional contacts closing in fast!" Instantly the captain of the Archangel looked over at the sensor's officer "More hostiles?" she asked hoping that wasn't going to be the case.

Romero shook his head "No I don't think so, they're coming in from the opposite direction that the enemy mobile suits have been coming in from."

"How long until we can get a visual on them?" Murrue asked. The Archangel's sensors officer looked back at the approaching dots and then back at the captain and said "Ten seconds if they continue at their current speed." He answered. The rest of the crew remained at their stations as the battle continued on but soon the ten seconds passed and they finally got a decent look at the objects that were headed straight for them. What they saw wasn't something that they had been expecting at all.

The three objects were VOBs, and two of them were carrying Gundams while the other was attached to White Glint. The White Glint. Everyone aboard knew all about this particular Raven given that he had ascended to near legendary status over the years.

The pilot; Andreas Frost had single handedly taken down countless mobile suits, armored cores, and even a few of the more massive Armsforts such as the Cabrican and Great Wall during his career. However his most famous exploit was defending a small city-state from an encroaching mercenary force hired by an unknown corporation almost singlehandedly.

The other two units were definitely Gundams if their appearance was anything to go by. However Murrue quickly recognized them as two of the models back at the Morgenroete hanger in Orb. The captain of the Archangel didn't really have much time to contemplate what they were doing here, as the transmission coming from one of the Gundams quickly answered everyone's unasked question.

"Captain Ramius this is Nathan Fletcher, Kira, Frost and I are on station and standing by to render whatever assistance is needed." That one threw everyone off guard. So Nathan and Flay had managed to find Kira after all. In fact the Archangel's captain was so shocked that she found that she couldn't utter so much as a word for a few seconds.

Eventually Nathan sent another transmission "Captain Ramius, I repeat, Kira, Frost and I are on station and are here to assist please respond."

It was then that Murrue finally found her voice and gave a response "I'm sorry but you caught me more than just a little off guard, I'd be more than happy if you were to lend us aid." The response was a quick "Yes Ma'am" from all three of the pilots.

000000000000000000000000000000

Kira was immeasurably thankful that the Archangel was still around and that everyone on board was still alive. The entire time Kira had been worried that they were all either hurt or dead. Granted Nathan and Andreas had tried their best to alleviate his fears but the mere possibility of what still threatened to overtake his mind. Kira had never been more relieved in his life when he heard the voice of the Archangel's captain. It meant that his friends were still alive and that he could still keep them safe.

The young Coordinator looked on at the battle that was slowly starting to get closer and closer. He activated the zoom function on the command console so as to get a better look at the fighting. The Black Skulls were holding their own remarkably well although their armored cores were slightly damaged and given how many mobile suits still kept on coming in it was unlikely that they were going to last for very much longer.

As he neared the battlefield Kira started to hear a beeping noise coming from the command console. The VOB's fuel gage was in the red signaling that it was almost completely out of fuel. Once the VOB was finally out it was programmed to automatically detach from the Gundam so that it wouldn't drag it down into ocean below. It was a built in safety feature so that if the pilot didn't detach it early, then he wouldn't risk crashing with the VOB.

"Nathan, Kira, prepare for VOB purging on my mark!" said Frost. Almost immediately, Nathan and Kira readied themselves to purge the large thrusters that had been attached to the backs of their machines hours ago. "Mark!" Frost shouted.

All of the components including the engines, fuel compartment and then fell off the VOB in a similar manner to when the large rockets and fuselage would fall off the old space shuttles back during the early days of space exploration. And while the VOBs were gone the Gundams and armored core were still going at very fast speeds towards their destination. As soon as they started to get close, they activated their brake thrusters located in the front of their machines.

As soon as White Glint neared the enemy it aimed its assault weapons and shoulder mounted spreader missiles at the enemy mobile suits and opened fire. Two missiles were shot out from the shoulder mounted launchers and as soon as they neared the closest group of GINNs and DINNs the missiles' outer plating opened up revealing several smaller missiles on racks inside. These smaller missiles shot outwards and chased after the nearest enemy signatures.

Several explosions then dotted a number of areas as several GINNs and even a CGUE were struck by the small, yet powerful missiles. Some of these missiles managed to do enough damage to the reactors to cause a chain reaction, which made some of the GINNs and the even the CGUE that was leading that particular group explode in midair.

After seeing that its initial attack was successful, White Glint then used its thrusters to evade the enemy mobile suits with relative ease as their targeting computers simply weren't able to react quickly enough to track the armored core's movements. This combined with near constant gunfire kept the ZAFT mobile suits completely on the defensive. So much so that it wasn't much of a surprise when several of them started sustaining multiple hits, some of which were to the Guuls they were using or the wings that carried them above the water.

Since several of the GINNs DINNs and CGUEs were so focused on White Glint that some of them had neglected to take note of the enemy Gundams in their midst. This cost them dearly. The Freedom and the Seraph activated their weapons and targeted the largest group of hostiles that was within weapons range.

The Freedom's plasma beam cannons unfolded from the back as did the waist mounted railguns. The barrels of all four weapons began to glow as they charged up. As they did Kira brought up his beam rifle and aimed it at the nearest ZAFT mobile suit and prepared to fire just as the Freedom's heavier weapons finished charging, and just as soon as he brought up the rifle the plasma beam cannons and railguns fired.

The devastation that the weapons caused to the enemy mobile suits was almost unimaginable. Many mobile suits were obliterated in that single volley of the energy weapons discharge as many of them were either completely vaporized or had most of their suits melted by the extreme heat from the directed energy.

Once the weapons had finished firing they folded back into their holstered position even as the Freedom grabbed a beam saber with its spare hand and moved in to engage the enemy in close combat. Most of the ZAFT pilots were smart enough to pull back when Kira moved in but there were a few who tried to take the Gundam on in close combat. They didn't last more than a second or two before being destroyed.

The Seraph meanwhile opened fire with its shoulder mounted railguns at a squadron of GINNs that were being led by a CGUE armed with a beam rifle and a heavy sword. Almost all of the GINNs were destroyed in the first volley but somehow the CGUE was able to emerge unscathed. The CGUE fired its beam rifle at the Seraph but it didn't cause any real damage to the upgraded PS armor.

The Seraph and the Freedom had a much more powerful reactor than the original prototypes. This allowed them to fight for much longer periods of time and it took more hits from energy and conventional weapons before the PS armor finally went offline. Because of this Nathan didn't even try to evade when he was hit by the CGUE's beam rifle.

Instead he continued onwards and impaled the CGUE through the chest area of the mobile suit with the Seraph's beam saber as it attempted to flee. For a moment the Seraph just hovered there, its beam saber stabbing straight through the other machine, then it backed out and pulled back a bit as the CGUE exploded from its destroyed reactor.

"Damn man where in the hell did you get those things and where can I get me one?" asked Drake in a jokingly envious tone as he opened fire at the nearest group of GINNs and DINNs with his Gatling cannons. Cross however ignored his comrade's joking and got straight to the point.

"Nathan would you mind telling me what in the hell is going on here?!" he demanded.

"Now is not the time Cross, we have to finish off the attacking hostiles, we can speak on the matter once the battle is over." Cross was going to push the issue and tell him that he wasn't making a request but was instead giving a direct order.

However before he could utter so much as a word \Hackett decided to interject "I'm sorry commander but the boy is right, we need to finish this fight first, and get the Archangel out of here before JOSH-A blows up!" he ordered as he closed in on one of the nearest GINNs and fired off a few rounds from his shotgun into its face.

Kira had heard every word that came from Hackett's mouth and his eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean JOSH-A is going to blow up?" he asked. Hackett and the others didn't have the time to go over all of the details with Kira so instead Murrue just gave him the rundown "The Atlantic Federation is using JOSH-A as bait for ZAFT. Once they take control of the base it will go up in an explosion that will destroy everything close by to it. We need to get out of its range before it can get to that point."

For several seconds Kira didn't know what to say. What could he say to something like that? The ZAFT and Earth Forces soldiers were on the verge of being slaughtered and they didn't even know it! At first Kira had no idea what to do. Sure those soldiers were trying to kill them but they didn't deserve to die like that.

There had to be some way to prevent this act of mass murder. Kira then did the only thing that he could think of, he opened up his communications on an open channel and prayed to god that the soldiers that were fighting at JOSH-A could hear his voice.

"Attention all Earth Forces and ZAFT soldiers, this is Ensign Kira Yamato. JOSH-A is about to self-destruct, you need to evacuate the area immediately or you're all going to be killed!"

Kira could hear the communications chatter of several soldiers from both sides as they tried to make sense of what they had just heard over the comm. channels.

"What the hell is this guy talking about?"

"Isn't he with the enemy?"

"What does he mean that JOSH-A is going to explode?!"

"Ignore him he's obviously trying to trick us!"

"Screw this I'm getting the hell out of here!"

"Wait is this place really gonna blow?"

Kira was about to repeat his message in the hopes that more of the soldiers would hear and hopefully leave before JOSH-A blew up but was contacted by Cross "Kira what the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demanded not knowing the logic behind the boy's actions.

"We can't just let them die Commander, we have to warn them. Maybe some of them will-" Kira was unable to finish that sentence as there was a bright flash coming from the direction of the Alaskan mainland followed by an almost deafening roar. A large blast then started to rapidly expand from the direction of the Atlantic Federation base. Soon all communications traffic other than the Archangel and its defenders could be heard.

Kira felt the tears stinging against his eyes as he thought of those that had just been killed in another battle in a senseless war.

* * *

><p>-PLANTs, George Glenn Memorial Hospital-<p>

* * *

><p>Inside one of the intensive care wards was a man with short dark brown hair. He had various medical machines attached to his body keeping him and had been deeply comatose state for quite a while now. Several doctors had quietly wondered if he was even going to wake up at this point but a stubborn woman with long dark blue hair had refused to give up on him. She had stayed by his side almost every waking moment, wanting to be the first thing he saw when he awoke.<p>

Suddenly several of the computer monitors started to beep loudly, indicating an increase in brain activity. The woman next to the bed was broken out of her thoughts as she saw the man in front of her start stirring. Then the most amazing thing happened; the man opened his eyes and looked over at the seat that his female companion had been occupying.

He saw the tears starting to stream down her cheeks and he reached over and wiped some of them free with his thumb and let out a weak chuckle "Don't cry Aisha, you're much prettier when you smile," almost reluctantly Aisha smiled and said "Andy don't you ever scare me like that again, you hear me."

* * *

><p>To be continued.<p>

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><p>AN: I was originally going to end this after JOSH-A exploded but then I decided that I should give you this little teaser for what is soon to come


	35. Return to the Land of Peace

Armored Seed

Chapter 35

Return to the Land of Peace

Disclaimer: I don't own Armored Core or Gundam Seed but I do own my OCs

A/N: my apologies for the very long time it took to update this.

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><p>-Archangel, Crew Quarters-<p>

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><p>.<p>

After the battle Kira was feeling an emotional maelstrom surging within himself. On one hand he was glad that his friends were still amongst the living but on the other he was also saddened that he hadn't been able to save anyone that had been in the blast radius when JOSH-A was destroyed. These feelings were almost constantly at war with one another and he soon wasn't really sure as to what he should be feeling at the moment.

Soon after boarding the Archangel Kira sought to just be alone with his thoughts. His friends and comrades saw this and although wanted to try and console him, tell him that there was nothing he could have possibly done to save the soldiers in JOSH-A they realized that it would be better if he was left alone for a while.

Nathan however, upon boarding the archangel was approached by Captain Hackett and Captain Ramius both of whom wished to speak with him on a few issues. He was lead directly to the captain's office, with Murrue sitting behind her desk giving him what was supposed to be an intimidating look but from what she could tell, it wasn't really working. Hackett was right behind her along with two guards.

Strangely enough Nathan was a little more than just a bit nervous at the moment, he didn't let it show and instead kept on the same stoic expression that he always had on. It was to be expected as he had kept that same expression when talking with others outside of combat for over a year now, it was almost ludicrous for him to stop now just because he was a little bit nervous about what the captain might pull on him.

Murrue finally spoke up "I'm sure you realize that you committed theft of Atlantic Federation property and went AWOL, and I'm also very sure that you know the consequences for such an action under military law." Nathan nodded "Yes I do and if given the chance I would make the exact same choices all over again." It was true Nathan in no way regretted any of his actions during the previous days.

The captain wondered to herself if there was any way that she could reign in some of the boy's impulsiveness when it came to doing what he believed to be the right thing. First there was the Lacus Clyne fiasco that occurred shortly after Heliopolis and now he had stolen a piece of Atlantic Federation property because he didn't want to leave anyone behind.

Murrue narrowed her eyes at Nathan "You do realize that by admitting your actions and not showing any kind of regret for them you're only going to make this worse on yourself, correct?" she asked.

"I understand what you're saying captain, but quite frankly I don't really give a damn." Nathan knew full well that there was no way he could avoid punishment this time. He stole military property, something that carried a very serious punishment that could lead to several years in prison and a very hefty fine depending on the kind of things he had stolen and that was only if he was lucky, but he didn't care. He had made his choice and he would stand by it no matter what happened.

For a few moments Murrue just looked at Nathan with an intense look in her eyes, one in which he returned. For a moment no one said so much as a word to one another. The silence was so palpable that one would be able to hear the sound of a pin drop to the floor.

At last Murrue finally spoke up in what was perhaps the most stern and authoritative voice anyone had ever heard her speak with "Given that the Archangel and its crew are no longer affiliated with the Atlantic Federation, you will not be facing any criminal charges but don't' think for a second that this means I'm letting you off the hook. Until we dock at Orb you will be confined to the ship's brig and unable to receive any visitors. And if you decide to disobey any of my orders again then I promise that a trip to the brig will end up being the least of your concerns. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Nathan gave an affirmative nod to the captain of the Archangel "Crystal, ma'am." Murrue gestured to the guards that were standing directly behind him to take him away. The guards took Nathan out of the room and began to 'guide' him down towards the brig, as though they thought that he might try something stupid if he wasn't escorted there with a pair of armed guards. However considering what Nathan had done just recently, Murrue probably didn't want to take any chances in regards to the boy.

Once Nathan was no longer in the room and was far enough away that he couldn't hear a word they were saying, Captain Hackett looked over at Murrue, said "You do realize that this probably won't work right? Carmen has been trying to rein in that crazy; 'do the right thing no matter what' drive of his for years now and I very much doubt that one measly little trip to the brig will do much. I mean once she handcuffed him to the infirmary bed, one of his least favorite places for well over a week and it still didn't work."

Murrue gave a shrug "I don't expect him to stop for quite a while but with some luck, a time in the brig will provide at least some incentive for him to start changing." Hackett looked rather dubious with her claims and shrugged "I hope you're right, I really do." With that having been said Hackett left the room leaving Captain Murrue alone with her thoughts.

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* * *

><p>-Archangel, Personnel Quarters-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

Inside the main personnel quarters of the Archangel, Kira sat down on his bunk in the dark, wallowing in self-loathing. It seemed as though once again he had failed to save anyone. Just like he had with those refugees from Heliopolis, with Ahmed, with Andy and with Tolle they had died despite his attempts to make sure they lived. Ever since he started fighting in this pointless war he wondered if all he had done was take lives instead of saving them.

For what was perhaps the umpteenth time, Kira questioned what he was even doing here. He never once in his life, wanted to be a soldier, the killing, the suffering, the violence he hated every last bit of it. Kira was just a simple student, he wasn't supposed to be fighting in this utterly senseless war.

The door that lead into his quarters slid open and the individual on the other side of the doorway stood there in silence even as Kira looked up to see who it was. Much to the young Coordinator's surprise, Commander La Flaga was standing at the doorway with an unreadable expression on his face. The moment that Kira had looked up to see his visitor, Mu said "I need to talk with you." The way he spoke made it abundantly clear that it wasn't a request.

"Fine," Kira said, doing his best to make his tone not sound as broken as he felt.

Mu stepped into Kira's quarters but remained near the doorway. "Kira, I need you to listen to me very carefully here, because this is something important that I think you haven't really come to grips with yet." By now Kira's had realized just where this little "talk" was going and he didn't like it.

Sure enough Kira was right as Mu continued on "This is war, not some little fairy tale where everything turns out alright for _everyone_ involved. No matter how hard you try, you simply _can't_ save everyone, this is something you just have to accept." Kira looked back down at the floor again "So I'm supposed to just let everyone die? is that it?!" he demanded, anger starting to fill him.

Mu let out a frustrated sigh "I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that you can't keep on blaming yourself every time someone gets killed in battle. Whether we like it or not these things happen and sometimes there isn't anything we can do to prevent a friend or a comrade getting killed and when that does occur we need to hold it together not just for the people we've lost but also for the ones that are still around so we can make sure that we don't lose anyone else."

Having no more reason to stay in Kira's quarters blonde commander then started to make his way for the door "Just think about it kid." And with that Mu La Flaga walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Kira alone with his thoughts.

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* * *

><p>-ZAFT, Command Sub-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

For what was perhaps the first time since before joining ZAFT, Yzak had no idea on what he should be doing. Just a few minutes after Athrun left Yzak's quarters, Commander Lockhart walked up to the door leading into the silver haired pilot's room and asked to speak with him on a few business arrangements. These quote-unquote "business arrangements" involved the Joule family making some ridiculously large deposits into Lockhart's personal bank accounts.

If Yzak or his mother were to refuse, then every news agency on Earth and the PLANTs would get a copy of the recording of the conversation that Yzak and Athrun had just a few minutes beforehand. Yzak may not be the most even tempered individual but he wasn't stupid. Yzak suspected that the leader of the Hydras more than likely had people in place to release the recordings to almost every major mainstream news service should he disappear or end up dead even before the man mentioned that he had people in place for such an occurrence.

If evidence of Yzak gunning down a shuttle filled with civilians then best case scenario was that sympathy towards ZAFT and the PLANTs would be severely damaged and Yzak would be painted as a psychotic mass murderer and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Worst case scenario ZAFT and the PLANTs lost all public support from almost everyone and Yzak would be painted as a mass murdering psychopath and used a scapegoat in an attempt save face and then executed as a war criminal and his family's name went down in flames. That is if they didn't disown him first.

Neither of those scenarios really worked for Yzak and he didn't want his family to pay for his screw-ups and he sure as hell didn't want ZAFT to look like the Blue Cosmos.

It wasn't as though he didn't care that he had just unintentionally murdered a number of civilian refugees but he had no reason to suspect that there were any civilians on board. They were on a military shuttle in the middle of a combat zone, how could anyone not think that that shuttle was filled with fleeing soldiers instead of civilians.

Yzak scoffed lightly at that particular thought. It sounded as though he were trying to make excuses for his actions like a criminal who had been caught committing a crime red-handed. Yzak thought back to the arrogant smirk that Lockhart had on his face as he presented Yzak the recording of the conversation between him and Athrun.

At first Yzak thought that no one would believe Lockhart's word over his but most mainstream news services had access to equipment that would be able to prove that Yzak and Athrun were the ones having the conversation. When they finally found out that the recording was genuine, there wouldn't be any stopping them from telling everyone they could reach about this scandal. The silver haired pilot looked over at a nearby desk that had a small computer console that was capable of sending messages very long distances. There was a very unpleasant call that Yzak was going to need to make.

He didn't know how but somehow he'd make sure that that bastard would pay for this and Yzak would keep his family's name intact, no matter what it took.

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* * *

><p>-Archangel, Brig-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

For the past couple of hours, Dearka had been attempting to try and get some sleep but no matter how hard he tried his thoughts kept going back to his ridiculously stupid comments that he had made earlier. Yeah, he'd been pissed that he'd been captured by the enemy but even he should have known better than to say something like that. Sure the girl was working for the enemy but hey, even he had _some_ principles.

If he saw that girl again he'd probably just have to swallow his pride and offer an apology for being a dumbass the next chance he got, which probably wouldn't be anytime soon considering the mess he made and how she had reacted to it. It was odd, under normal circumstances he would never have apologized to someone from the Earth Forces for anything, and yet there he was, wanting to make at least some sort of amends for the insensitivity he had shown earlier.

Dearka cocked a brow and fought the urge to start laughing when he thought of how Yzak would react to him wanting to apologize to someone who should be considered an enemy soldier and fought down the urge to let out a chuckle. He'd probably get furious and berate him for even thinking about apologizing to the enemy.

Dearka was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the door leading into the brig open. Wondering if it was someone who had come to visit him the tanned Coordinator sat up in his cot and waited expectantly. It was unlikely that it was the girl from earlier if the number of footsteps were anything to go by. There were more than just one person walking in his direction. If the noise was anything to go by then there was probably at least three people.

Sure enough Dearka was right, it wasn't the girl, but the sight that greeted him certainly wasn't then one that he had been expecting. It was Nathan Fletcher, AKA: the Red Eyed Devil being escorted by a pair of armed guards. The teen pilot seemed pretty calm for someone that was being treated like a prisoner. Then again the guy was known for his mostly stoic attitude so perhaps it shouldn't be all that much of a surprise.

The Raven operator was lead into the cell right across from Dearka's and upon entering the cell the guards closed the door behind him and locked it. The walls in front of the cell were reinforced bulletproof glass with small circular holes so that the prisoner wouldn't end up suffocating during their stay.

With their job finished the guards turned to look at Dearka "We'll be docking at Orb within twenty-four hours, once we arrive you'll be free to leave." To say that Dearka was shocked and confused at this revelation was an understatement. Wasn't he a prisoner of war?

Seeing the look that Dearka was giving the guards the leader of the group elaborated further "After the fiasco at JOSH-A, the Archangel is now no longer part of the Earth Forces and therefore we don't have any real reason to keep you as a prisoner, and as such you will be released back into ZAFT custody when we finally reach Orb."

Dearka nodded in understanding before he said "Hey, uh there was a girl who came to deliver my food one time. Her name was Mir if I'm remembering correctly, I was wondering if I could possibly talk to her for a minute? I want to apologize." The guards looked a bit perplexed by the request and the leading one shrugged "I'll see what I can do but I won't make any promises."

"Thanks," Dearka uttered as the guards made their way out of the brig.

once the guards were outside Dearka looked over at Nathan who was lying down on the cot in his cell staring at the ceiling with a blank expression on his face. Over the course of the next few minutes the silence was starting to become deafening for Dearka and besides the curiosity he had towards why one of the Legged Ship's pilots was currently in the brig was eating away at him. Eventually he just looked over at the pilot in the room opposite his and asked "So, you mind telling me why you've been obsessed with gunning down one of my friends?"

Nathan looked over at the cell across from his with an arched brow and a near dead-pan expression. "What do you care about that bastard?" he asked. Dearka just gave the Red Eyed Devil small shrug "Well there's nothing else to do around here, so I just thought: might as well find out why you're trying to murder Yzak."

The pilot of the Seraph looked blankly at Dearka for a few moments making the ZAFT pilot wonder if he was going to even answer him.

Nathan hesitated for a moment and then answered "I don't suppose there's any real harm in telling you. During the descent to Earth, Yzak opened fire and shot down a shuttle filled with civilian refugees as they entered the atmosphere. I am going to kill him for that." Dearka looked at the red eyed teenager incredulously "You ever thought that maybe turning him over to the ZAFT military courts would-" he started but Nathan cut him off before he could finish.

"Are you really that stupid? ZAFT would never choose to prosecute Yzak. I mean come on, the son of a high ranking politician from the PLANTs being tried for war crimes against a neutral nation, it'd be political suicide. They'd lose every last bit of public sympathy they have which isn't nearly as much as they used to have before you and your friends destroyed Heliopolis. No, it's much more likely that they would just cover up the whole thing to keep what's left of their public image intact. Therefore I'm going to kill him for what he's done and no one, not you, not your buddy Athrun, not even Commander Le Creuset is going to stop me from gunning him down like the rabid dog he is."

With that little declaration Dearka's temper started to flare "Oh and what do you have to say about Nichol then, huh? You gunned him down pretty good when he decided to give his life to save his friend!" Nathan rolled his eyes at that pathetic comparison and immediately went to shoot it down.

"Your friend Nichol _knew_ the risks of combat when he signed up for military service, he knew that could very well end getting killed at the hands of the enemy but he still joined anyway. Those people on that shuttle? They weren't soldiers, they were civilians who didn't ask to be part of this war. All any of them wanted was to live out normal lives away from all the fighting. And thanks to your friend they'll never have that chance." Dearka gritted his teeth as he tried to come up with a retort for the Red Eyed Devil's counterargument.

Before he could however Nathan said "You may as well save your breath, nothing you say or do is ever going to stop me from killing him." With that Dearka just grit his teeth for a few moments longer and held his tongue. There wasn't really any point in arguing with this guy right now. It was obvious that nothing was going to change his mind over his conviction towards killing Yzak.

For the next few hours the two prisoners remained completely silent as the ship continued to make its way to Orb.

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* * *

><p>-Orb, Morgenroete hanger, several hours later-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

By the time the Archangel finally managed return to Orb waters, the sun had practically finished setting on the horizon. When the carrier had finally arrived at the Morgenroete hanger there were already a number of individuals were already there waiting for them. Chief Representative Attha, Yuna Seiran, Fiona Jarnefeldt, General Matheson and Barnett were all standing near the large metal gangplank that led from the main scaffold and onto one of the main boarding sections of the ship.

As the group waited for the airlock door leading into the ship to open William Barnett had to fight down the urge to smile in triumph. Not only had his little gambit paid off but now even General Matheson had to admit the effectiveness of the Freedom and the Seraph. It took all of Barnett's considerable willpower to not smile at the thought of some of the many moneymaking possibilities that would soon become available to Morgenroete.

At last the airlock door opened up and several figures walked out. The first was Captain Murrue Ramius who was soon followed by Captain Hackett, Commander Cross, Commander La Flaga, Nathan Fletcher, Andreas Frost and finally Kira Yamato. Once everyone was out of the airlock the officers of the Archangel gave a respectful salute towards the group that was awaiting them.

After a few seconds of them simply standing there, General Matheson addressed the command crew of the Archangel "I'm very glad to see that you all managed to make it to Orb from JOSH-A safe and sound. A number of living accommodations have been prepared the crew of the Archangel. However before you settle in we'll need to debrief Mr. Fletcher, Yamato and Frost as well as the key officers of the archangel on transpired during the attack on JOSH-A. Please follow me."

It would take some time for the techs at Morgenroete to go through all the data gathered during the battle. At least a couple of hours but Matheson wanted answers immediately. From what little information that had already been gathered, there had been some kind of an explosion at JOSH-A that wiped out the whole facility plus a good chunk of the surrounding area. It obviously couldn't have been a nuke given the fact that the N-Jammers kept such weaponry from being used but the sheer amount of destruction that it had caused. Whatever it was that ZAFT or the Earth Forces used at JOSH-A could very well be a serious threat towards Orb.

Shortly after the destruction of JOSH-A, ZAFT forces swarmed the mass driver at Panama and destroyed it effectively keeping the Earth Forces stranded on Earth and preventing more reinforcements from making it into space. This would put the Earth Forces on the defensive unless they took one of the five other mass drivers. The most likely target that the Earth Forces would attempt to seize for their own usage would probably be the mass driver in Orb despite the nation's neutral status.

The reason being was that unlike one of the other ZAFT controlled mass drivers which had dozens of mobile suits guarding them, plus a large number of support craft, Orb had only a handful of prototype mobile suits and support units. The Earth Forces would more than likely attempt to gain access to Orb's mass driver through surreptitious means, at least at first. When they wouldn't gain what they wanted they would use force to get what they wanted and it was unlikely that Orb would last for very long. At least not without a lot of help.

Matheson sighed and continued to lead the way towards one of the facility's meeting rooms where he would hopefully get some answers out of the Archangel's key officers.

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* * *

><p>-San Francisco Naval Base, Muruta Azrael's office-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

For the past few hours Muruta Azrael had been going through a wide range of emotions. The first was giddiness in that through the destruction of JOSH-A, Azrael had wiped out nearly the entirety of the ZAFT assault force along with effectively all of the higher ranking Eurasian officers. This tipped the scales of power in the Earth Forces squarely in his favor allowing him near total control of both the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian militaries.

The next was annoyance; somehow the Archangel and most of her crew compliment had gone rogue managed to escape the base's destruction but it was of no real consequence. Those traitorous bastards along with their Raven friends would be dealt with in due time. Next came pure rage. In retaliation for the heavy losses that had been inflicted at JOSH-A, ZAFT had staged a heavy assault against the mass driver in Panama Just a few hours after the attack on JOSH-A, destroying it utterly.

After the leader of the Atlantic Federation finally managed to calm down he remembered that while this put a rather annoying setback in his plans it was but a temporary delay. All Azrael had to do was take control of the mass-driver in Orb and then things would go back on track.

The leader of the Atlantic Federation and the Blue Cosmos was broken out of his thoughts when he heard the voice of his secretary come through the office's intercom "Sir, the representatives from the Omer Science Technology Corporation have arrived." The corners of Azrael's mouth quickly twitched upwards into a grin. "Send them in please."

Within moments the doors leading into Azrael's office opened and in stepped a pair men both dressed in combat fatigues walked into the office before they both snapped to attention. One was a man in his mid to late twenties with short, dark blue hair and an almost fierce looking pair of blue eyes.

The other one however didn't seem entirely human. It was a man who looked to be about maybe twenty to twenty three years of age at most. His head was completely devoid of hair and cybernetic implants could be seen just underneath the skin of the man's near pale white scalp. His eyes had been replaced by a pair of implants as well that had a faint emerald green glow. Even the individual's hands were mechanical.

The two men immediately snapped to attention and gave Muruta Azrael a respectful salute. The one without the implants spoke first "Ravens Maxwell Otsdarva and CUBE reporting for duty sir!" Azrael's smirk increased in size, it seemed as though his friends at Omer really had kept their promises.

Right after the attack on Heliopolis, Azrael had managed to secure some, assistance from Omer in creating a more advanced version of the Archangel, along with some of their more 'specialized' personnel for a few deniable ops missions. However when he had informed them that he would require some of their best and brightest Ravens for a new upcoming operation, the company was more than cooperative. They even allowed him to borrow a few of their newest toys.

"At ease," said Azrael before moving on to business "So with you here am I correct in assuming that everything is prepared for our upcoming operation?" he asked. "That's correct, everyone and everything is prepared and awaiting your order sir," declared Otsdarva.

Azrael cocked a brow in curiosity "Even the Biological CPUs?" he asked wondering how the so-called "Boosted Men" - as some of Azrael's subordinates had affectionately taken to calling them - were doing, after all he couldn't have them going through withdrawals during battle. Every "Boosted Man" was given combat drugs in order to improve their combat effectiveness on the field, thereby allowing them to take on Coordinators with little effort. The only downside was that without getting regular doses they could go through withdrawals and lose their effectiveness or even end up getting killed.

Otsdarva barely managed to hide his obvious distaste for that particular term when Azrael had mentioned the Biological CPUs. "They seem very eager to prove their worth on the battlefield sir and with the tools you've given them it's more than likely that they will." Azrael's smirk managed to widen slightly. Good there weren't any problems then. "Excellent, then everything is set for the operation."

"Just make sure that those pets of yours know that White Glint-" Otsdarva started but Azrael waved him off dismissively "Yes, yes, White Glint is yours and CUBE's to kill I've made it abundantly clear to the team. Now if there is nothing else the both of you are dismissed."

Otsdarva and CUBE gave a quick salute and headed back out the door they had just entered from leaving Azrael alone to his thoughts.

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* * *

><p>-PLANTs Outbound Flight Observation Center-<p>

* * *

><p>.<p>

While in the hospital, Andrew Waltfield had gotten a rather, interesting message from Siegel Clyne. The man claimed that he believed that both his life and that of his daughter were in danger from Chairman Zala and some of his more, fanatical supporters. At first, Andrew felt that Siegel had become a little paranoid since he had last seen the man. However after hearing the man out, Waltfield couldn't just wave the man's claims off just like that.

In fact when Andrew really thought about it, it did make a lot of sense. Patrick Zala had become more and more radical ever since the destruction of Heliopolis. Many just attributed this sort of behavior to the man's drive to win the war but Andy had always suspected that there was more to it than that. However Waltfield and Aisha had never even considered something like the bombshell that Clyne was about to drop on them next.

In recent months, Zala had been pouring resources into constructing a super weapon called GENESIS. Even more disturbing was what Zala was planning on doing with it. He wasn't going to use it as a deterrent against the Earth Forces and coerce them into negotiating for a truce or peace agreement but they instead intended on using it to exterminate every last natural on the planet. It was for lack of better terms; disturbing that someone who had lost a loved one due to the actions of genocidal maniacs, that they would employ similar methods against them.

Waltfield supposed it just gave credence to the old phrase "One should take care when fighting monsters, so that one does not become one himself".

Shortly afterwards, Siegel had dropped a bombshell in a request of Waltfield. If anything were to happen to Siegel Clyne, he wanted Waltfield to take the Eternal, a ZAFT support ship crewed by those the Siegel knew were loyal to him and not the Defense Chairman and make his way to Orb. Once there he was to inform Orb's Chief Representative Izumi Attha what was going on and to request his aid in stopping Siegel's former friend.

A few hours later Andrew and Aisha found themselves in the flight observation center watching Siegel Clyne's shuttle begin to leave the hanger. At first Aisha had been more than just a little reluctant to help Andy leave the hospital, given that he had only regained consciousness a little over a day ago.

The doctors had said that while Andrew was fine physically, they still wanted to keep an eye on him just in case something came up that they didn't know about. Unfortunately that wasn't a good enough reason for Andy and even though Aisha had tried to tell him that they could easily just watch the shuttle leave on the TV set that was in Andy's hospital room but he was insistent on "getting as close as he could to the real thing."

This little excuse didn't fool Aisha for a second; Andy just wanted to get out of the hospital as quickly as he possibly could not that Aisha could really blame him. The whole place was incredibly dull and she wanted to get out of there almost as much as he did, which was one of the reasons why she helped convince the doctors to let the man get discharged from the hospital.

The couple continued to watch the monitor that showed Siegel Clyne's shuttle departing from the hanger as a newscaster's voice narrated what was going on "Now the shuttle carrying Chairman Clyne is now departing the hanger and making its way to…" Andy tuned out what the reporter was saying and continued to focus solely on the image on the screen. So far it seemed to Andy as though the fears that Siegel Clyne had been harboring were ill founded.

Unfortunately this would not last. Once the shuttle was completely clear of the PLANTs there was a very brief moment where it shook for a brief instant. It was difficult to see but it definitely happened. What followed a mere millisecond later however was seen by everyone, much to their shock and horror. Several small explosions blossomed throughout various parts of the ship right before it went up completely in a giant explosion.

All around Commander Waltfield people started to scream, cry and voice their shock and disbelief in various ways, he however clenched his fist and only muttered a single sentence: "Patrick Zala you bastard."

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><p>.<p>

to be continued

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